


West of the Moon, East of the Sun

by QueenSabriel



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Gen, Lord of the Rings crossover, M/M, Multi, the gang visits middle earth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-07-15 03:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16054103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenSabriel/pseuds/QueenSabriel
Summary: This was, quite possibly, the strangest situation any of them had ever been in, and they had been in a lot of strange situations...





	1. An Unexpexted Journey

> _Still round the corner there may wait_
> 
> _A new road or a secret gate;_
> 
> _And though I oft have passed them by,_
> 
> _A day will come at last when I_
> 
> _Shall take the hidden paths that run_
> 
> _West of the Moon, East of the Sun._
> 
> -  _A Walking Song_ , alternate verse from _The Return of the King_

There was something very, very wrong. That was the first thing any of them realized.

Ronan was the first to speak. “Hey, so…where the fuck did my farm go?”

This was a fair question since said farm was in fact missing. The teens had, less than two seconds ago, been standing in a circle of stones with Ronan’s house to one side and the sprawling fields and outbuildings of the Barns to the other. There had been the usual trees surrounding the Lynch property, and in the distance the familiar hunched shapes of the Blue Ridge mountains.

There were still trees, still grassy fields, and still mountains, but they were the wrong trees, fields, and definitely the wrong mountains.

Gansey raised his eyebrows so high his glasses slid down his nose. “Jesus Christ,” he said, turning to look at the mountains, which aside from being tall, jagged, and snowcapped were in a completely different direction than the correct, expected mountains. “What—are those the Rockies? What happened? Did the ley line just _teleport_ us?”

“Those look more like the Himalayas,” said Henry, stepping up beside Gansey and gazing at the mountains with a suspicious expression. “Hey, Richardman, are you sure we did the right spell? Did you accidentally send us to Nepal?”

“I..I...” Gansey actually stuttered as he looked frantically around near their feet. “Damn, where’s my notebook?”

“Probably back at the farm,” Ronan said, scowling. “What the fuck did you do man?”

“I don’t know, Ronan!” Gansey said, whirling around to face him. “You were the one who asked us to help you with this!”

“Guys!” This was Blue, waving her hands between them. “You both need to chill. We’ll figure this out. Anyone have their cellphone?”

Ronan folded his arms over his chest, shaking his head. Gansey, Henry, and Adam all felt their pockets, then shook their heads as well.

They were in the middle of a rolling field of soft silver-green grass. Tumbled rocks jutted up here and there, none bigger than a large boulder. Some ways away stood a large copse of thickly growing ash and maple trees. Above them the sky was overcast, but the clouds were just thin enough that they could see the general location of the sun.

Gansey looked at his watch, then up at the sky. “Alright, it looks like it’s about the same time it was when we were at the Barns, which means these mountains are east of us. I say we pick a direction and start walking, wherever we are we’re bound to hit a road or a town or something, right?”

The others looked at each other, shrugging. Since none of them had any better ideas, they started walking north, keeping the mountains to their right, the trees coming up ahead on their left. No one spoke at first, all of them too busy taking in their strange surroundings. Gansey was in the lead, Blue and Henry in the middle, and Ronan and Adam walking so close together at the rear that they kept bumping shoulders.

When they had come level with the trees, close enough that Blue could reach out and trail her fingers against the lowest hanging branches, Gansey stopped suddenly, throwing his arms out to either side and saying, “Did any of you hear that?”

For a moment they stood there, listening. Then they did hear it: something large was moving through the trees, just out of sight behind the foliage and the shadows. The sounds of rustling leaves and snapping twigs were intermittent, as though it was moving slowly, trying to pass unnoticed. Or sneak up on them.

“Hello?” Gansey called.

The noises stopped.

“Maybe we should just—” Blue began, but before she could finish an arrow shot out of the trees, narrowly missing her head. She let out a startled shout, jumping sideways into Gansey.

“Hey what the hell?!” Ronan bellowed.

His shout was answered by something just as off-putting as the arrow: a snarling, inhuman roar that sent a nearby flock of birds shooting into the sky.

Adam was starting to take slow steps backwards. “Um, guys, maybe we should…”

Before any of them could react however, a huge, horrible shape stalked out of the trees right in front of them.

For a split second the thing just stood there staring at them with its bulbous, yellow eyes, maybe just as surprised to see them as they were to see it. Though it walked on two legs, had arms and a head and what looked like clothing, there was no mistaking it for human. It was also clear to the teens (though it was hard to say how or why) that the thing was not a person in a costume. It had pale grey skin streaked with dirt, huge ragged ears and long, bare feet. In one hand it held a small bow, and as they watched it reached back to pull another arrow from the quiver at its hip.

“Please don’t,” Gansey said, starting to lift his hands.

The creature curled one cracked lip back, revealing a mouth full of pointed yellow teeth. Then it roared, even louder this time, and as though in unanimous agreement the teens bolted in the opposite direction, towards the mountains. Having the longest legs of the bunch Ronan was soon in the lead, looking for anywhere they might find a place to hide. He also kept looking back over his shoulder to check on the others, and as such was the first one to see when Adam fell.

‘Fell’ might have been an understatement. With a yell like none of them had ever heard him make, Adam pitched forward, falling face-first to the grass, the shaft and feathers of one of the creature’s arrows sticking up from the back of his shoulder.

“ _PARRISH_!” Ronan barely slowed as he did a complete turn, charging back to Adam, who was now half curled up in the grass, shuddering in pain. Ronan fell to his knees beside him. “Shit, shit, shit…”

“Ronan…” Adam gasped.

The others ran over to them. Gansey immediately moved to stand between Ronan and Adam and the creature, who was only a few yards away again and wearing an expression which, despite the strangeness of its face, was clearly triumphant.

“ _Globurz shala_ ,” it growled, reaching for another arrow which it knocked to the bow and raised, pointed at Gansey, who had his hands up.

“Don’t!” Gansey said, this time using his voice of command.

The creature started laughing, shaking its head in slow, weaving side-to-side movements. It snarled something else that sounded like words, but of course none of them understood.

From far to their left, a loud, clear horn sounded. Everyone, including the monster, turned to look at it. Two figures on horseback were charging towards them, and a second later two pale-shafted arrows pierced the monster through the throat and forehead. It keeled backwards, twitching and gurgling until it fell still.

The two riders slowed as they neared the group of teens, then dismounted. They were both men, but there was something strange about the absolutely perfect symmetry of their features, the size of their dark eyes, even the fluidity of their movements, more like cats than people. Their faces were identical as well, as was their long dark hair and all of their clothing save for the silver brooches that fastened at the neck of their cloaks: one wore a brooch in the shape of a horse head, the other a brooch in the shape of a crescent moon.

The one with the horse immediately went to make sure the monster was dead, while the one with the moon jogged over to Adam and Ronan, crouching beside them.

Ronan didn’t have time to think about how strange these two were. Adam had fallen still, his eyes closed and chest moving in alarmingly short breaths.

“Let me see the wound,” said the stranger, and Ronan scooted aside a little, watching as he used two slender fingers to hold open the tear in Adam’s hoodie to see the injury below.

Blue, leaning over Ronan’s shoulder, let out a worried and sympathetic hiss. If the arrow sticking in just beside Adam’s shoulder blade wasn’t nasty looking enough, the skin around it had turned an alarming shade of dark purple, with threads of black running out from the torn edges of the wound.

“It is poisoned,” the man said, his dark brows furrowing. He looked up at them. “We must treat this immediately to slow its spread.”

“Poisoned?!” Ronan snapped.

But the man gave him a level look. “We will not let him die. My brother is an incredibly gifted healer. One of you get a fire going, we will need to boil water.” When no one moved, he pointed back towards the horses. “There is a flint and steel in my bag, and there should be plenty of kindling from the forest.”

After only a split second of hesitation, Henry and Gansey took off to the tree line and Blue went to the horse, which regarded her with disinterest as she started rummaging in one of the small packs draped over its saddleless back.

Ronan remained crouched by Adam, his own breath coming maybe just a little too quickly. He glanced up as the other man joined them. The twins glanced at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation before the horse-brooch one nudged the first out of the way and bent over Adam to examine the injury. The moon-brooch one touched Ronan’s shoulder.

“Give him a little space,” he said.

“I can’t fucking lose him,” Ronan said, tears burning in the corners of his eyes.

The man squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “You will not. My name is Elladan, what are yours?”

“Ronan, and he’s Adam,” he muttered, then frowned deeper. “Wait… Elladan?”

“Yes,” Elladan said. “And my brother is Elrohir.”

Ronan wiped the back of his hand over his eyes, shaking his head. “What the fuck is going on,” he whispered, mostly to himself.

Gansey and Henry returned then, dropping a pile of sticks beside them. Blue arrived as well, with the flint and steel from Elladan’s pack as well as some large stones to make a ring for the fire. While Elrohir continued to examine Adam’s injury, using a knife to widen the tear in his shirt, Gansey quickly got a fire going, and Elladan sent Henry to fill a small pot with water from a nearby stream.

“Are there any more of those… things out there?” Blue asked, casting a wary look at the monster’s corpse that was still uncomfortably close.

“Not near enough to be of concern to us,” Elladan said. “Orcs do not usually travel west of the Hithaeglir, but they have been getting bold of late. That is why my brother and I were patrolling. But this was a lone straggler from a larger pack we brought down two days ago.”

“Excuse me, did you say ‘orcs’?” Gansey said.

Elladan didn’t have a chance to reply, as his brother looked up and tugged on his sleeve.

“The arrow is not lodged in the bone,” Elrohir said. “That is good. Removing it will be the easy part. The poison is what I am concerned with.”

Elladan said something in a soft, lyrical language. Elrohir pondered whatever he said, then nodded. To the teens, Elladan said, “We will remove the arrow and give him temporary treatment here, but he needs to be in an infirmary. Once we have him stable enough to travel we will take you all to Imladris, it is not far.”

“Imladris,” Ronan repeated. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me, right? Is this a joke?”

Blue and Gansey looked at him. “Ronan?” Gansey said.

Elladan also looked surprised. “Excuse me?”

“Listen if you can help him that’s great but if you’re just…larpers or whatever please drop the act and tell us because I’m really not in the mood,” Ronan said. As usual he was falling back on anger to keep himself from breaking down, whether or not it was useful at the moment.

“I do not understand,” Elladan said, frowning now. “You do not believe we are who we say we are? Why would we lie?”

“Ronan,” Gansey said, grabbing his arm. “What’s your problem?”

“He said their names are Elladan and Elrohir," Ronan said, gesturing. "Elladan and Elrohir are characters in _The Lord of the Rings_. They’re elves. Imladris is another name for Rivendell, this is all…” He trailed off, mouth hanging open a little as he looked first back at the dead orc, then at Elladan, who had just tucked his hair behind one conspicuously pointed ear.

“Oh my _God_ ,” Blue said, reaching the same conclusion that Ronan obviously just had.

“Okay,” Gansey said, swallowing. “Okay. Um.” He turned to Elladan and Elrohir with a smile. “Please, don’t worry about him, he’s upset. We’re very, very lost, and Adam there is his boyfriend…erm, betrothed? They’re in love. Anyway. So.”

Elladan nodded slowly, then forced a smile. “I understand. It is all right.”

“I have water!” Henry said loudly as he came back over, passing the pot of water to Elladan who moved to set it carefully in the fire to heat. Seeing the looks on his friends’ faces, Henry raised his eyebrows and said, “Wow, what did I miss?”

“Ronan is having a breakdown and we’re apparently in _Lord of the Rings_ ,” said Blue. She gestured at Elladan and Elrohir. “They’re elves. Elladan and Elrohir. I’ve only ever seen the movies and I don’t think they were in them.”

Henry’s eyes had gone very, very wide. He pressed both hands over his mouth, but even so a delighted squeak still escaped. Ronan glared at him, as though to silently remind him that Adam was very injured and now was not the time for geeking out.

Elrohir shot them a look but it was clear neither elf had really been paying attention to their conversation. Elladan meanwhile removed a pouch from his belt and took from it two small packets. One contained what looked like tea leaves, the other a fine powder.

“Ronan,” he said. “It may help you to stay busy. This is ground white willow bark, and the leaves are athelas. Take some of the water and mix them into a paste, we will use it in a poultice to bind Adam’s shoulder.”

“Sure,” Ronan said, a bit roughly, but he took the two packets from Elladan as well as a small wooden spoon and, using a flat rock Blue handed him as a plate, began to carefully add water as he mixed them together.

Gansey watched him intently, crouching with his arms resting on his knees. “Willow bark. That’s Aspirin.”

Ronan nodded vaguely. He looked up from his work and glanced sideways at the two elves. Elrohir had wetted a piece of cloth and was cleaning the blood and dirt from around the wound. Adam was still unconscious, his face pale and gleaming with sweat. Shaking his head Ronan whispered to Gansey, “This is fucking insane. How did this happen?”

“I don’t know,” Gansey said. “But let’s worry about getting Adam fixed up first, then we can figure out how we wound up in a fictional universe.”

“What are you other three called?” Elladan asked, looking up at them.

“Oh,” Blue said. “Um, I’m Blue, this is Henry and Gansey.”

“Blue, Henry, one of you switch with Ronan,” Elladan said. “Ronan and Gansey, since you are larger, we will need you to help hold Adam still for a moment…”

“Hold him still?” Ronan asked. “What…”

Elrohir had taken his small knife out again and was holding the blade in the flames of their small fire. He looked at Ronan as though his reaction was unexpected. “Even though the arrow did not pierce bone we still must widen the opening,” he said. “We cannot simply pull it out, all arrows are barbed and orc arrows usually more so.”

“Oh, God,” Gansey muttered, going a little green. Blue gave him a reassuring pat on the back as she moved to take over the poultice construction.

Despite looking less than thrilled with the prospect of what they were about to do, Rona and Gansey moved closer, Gansey going to hold down Adam’s legs and Ronan moving to his shoulders. Elrohir took the knife then, swiftly and neatly using the tip to widen the wound around the arrow shaft. He handed the knife to his brother, then carefully pressed the tips of forefinger and thumb into the wound. Adam shifted and made a quiet sound, but still did not wake.

For a moment Elrohir gritted his teeth, moving his hand just a little, then slowly, carefully he drew the arrow out, and everyone could see that he had the small arrowhead gripped between his fingers. He eyed the weapon for a moment, then tossed it into the fire.

“Let the water cool a little then bring it here,” Elrohir said. After Henry handed him the pot he poured water carefully into the wound to flush it out, then wiped away the fresh blood before taking the paste Blue had finished and covering the wound in it, finally binding the whole thing with a strip of linen tied around Adam’s shoulder. “There, that should hold him for a while.”

Elladan turned to Ronan. “Are you able to ride?”

“Um…” Ronan, still looking baffled and dazed, turned to look at the two horses. “I mean, yeah, but I haven’t in like a really long time and I’ve never gone bareback before.”

“You will just need to hold Adam and make sure he does not fall,” Elladan said. “My horse will follow Elrohir’s. You three will go on ahead, so that Adam may be treated as quickly as is possible. The rest of us will follow on foot.”

There was a long moment of hesitation at that, none of them keen on the idea of being separated, but they were even less keen on the idea of Adam’s condition worsening. Finally Ronan swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

It took some maneuvering, but the two elves managed to get Ronan up on Elladan’s horse, his arms around Adam who woke up a long enough to mumble something about not feeling well before he fell unconscious again. Then Elrohir sprung up on the other, and without giving Ronan a chance to even say goodbye to the others, clicked his tongue and both horses sped off into the twilight.

Elladan watched them go for a second or two, then turned to the others with a smile. “We should be on our way as well, it will take an hour or so to reach Imladris on foot, and I would like to get there before dark…”

They set out at a brisk but not difficult pace, Henry jogging to keep pace with Elladan. Along the way they tried their best to explain to him where they were from, and how they had wound up out here in the wilderness without any weapons or traveling gear, but Elladan mostly just seemed baffled by them.

“I do not understand,” he said, leading the way to the head of a wide dirt path winding its way into a pass between tall rocks. The sun was almost completely set by then, leaving only a faint, lingering light behind. “You know of my brother and myself, and Rivendell, and the Misty Mountains and all that is in this world it seems, but you seem so surprised by it.”

“We know you from stories,” Henry said. “Erm. Basically we didn’t know you were real. That any of this was real.”

Elladan frowned, reaching up to trail his fingers along the rock face nearest them. “Stories. It is almost as though you are from a different time.”

“I mean, maybe that’s— _Oh_!” Blue had stopped mid-sentence as they rounded a corner and the rock wall on one side dipped down, giving them a sweeping view of the valley below them.

Lights sparkled in the growing darkness, illuminating the countless buildings and terraces and walkways and stairs that seemed to grow organically from the rocks and trees, spanning back and forth across the valley while far at the bottom they could hear the sound of the river rushing. Elladan, smiling, stopped at the top of the trail to give them a moment, as Blue had covered her mouth and Henry looked like he might start weeping and Gansey was doing nothing to hide the awe and wonder on his face.

“It’s so beautiful,” Gansey said. “I can’t…wow. Wow. This is…so much."

Elladan nodded, laughing softly. “Yes.”

“This is incredible,” Henry sighed, brushing his hand over his forehead. He looked at Elladan. “If this is Rivendell I can’t imagine what like, oh, Gondolin was like…I mean, no offense, I didn’t mean…”

“That is all right,” Elladan said. “I too often regret that I was never able to lay eyes on the great cities of old, and that those who did do not speak of them as much as they could. Come along.” Motioning to them, he started down the gently sloping switchback that took them down the side of the valley.

Gansey leaned close to Henry. “What’s Gondolin?”

“Old elf city,” Henry said. “I think they mentioned it in one of _The Hobbit_ movies, Gandalf and Thorin’s swords were made there. But it got attacked by Sauron’s boss a bajillion years ago.”

“I didn’t know you were such an LotR nerd,” Blue said, giving Henry a friendly bump with her elbow.

“What can I say? They’re cool,” Henry said, laughing. “Though it would’ve been nice if the movies tried to fix at least some of Tolkien’s, mmmmmmm, problematic features, but at least they made Arwen more cool…”

Elladan turned around, “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Henry said. “I was just telling them how cool your sister is.”

“How… _cool_?” Elladan said.

“Slang, right,” Henry said. “Um… that’s a good thing. It means someone is…”

“Highly admirable,” Gansey said, accompanying this with a charming smile for good measure.

Elladan let out another quiet laugh. “You are very queer folk, that is for certain.”

“Ronan and Adam are, at least,” Henry said, quietly, then laughed when Blue flicked his arm.

As they descended into the valley they began to hear noises from below: music, laughter, hammers, voices, singing. Smells of cooking food and healthy animals floated up to them as well, and all three once again lapsed into awestruck silence. When they reached the bottom of the path, Elladan led them over a narrow foot-bridge and into a small courtyard that was open on all sides with more bridges and stairways leading to other buildings. No sooner had they reached the center than another elf came over, speaking to Elladan in hushed tones and shooting the three teens curious looks as she did.

“ _Hanon lle_ ,” Elladan said to her, patting her shoulder before she hurried off. He turned to face Gansey, Blue, and Henry. “They’ve already drawn the poison from your friend, it was not as bad as it looked, it would seem. But he is sleeping off the medicine now, and will remain in the infirmary overnight. Rooms have been prepared for you in the guest quarters, and they will bring food up if you are hungry.”

“So Adam’s going to be okay?” Blue said, then quickly amended, “I mean…he’s going to be all right?”

Elladan nodded. “Yes, he will be fine.”

“Thank you,” Gansey said. “Truly. I’m not sure what we would’ve done if you hadn’t come along.”

“I am very glad I did then,” Elladan said, then he motioned for them to follow. “Come, I will show you to your rooms.”

He led them up one staircase, through a building, over another walkway, then through a door and into a large, circular room that seemed to be a common room of sorts, though the only other person there was an elf who was just setting food out on the large table beneath one of the windows. He inclined his head to them as he finished, then wordlessly slipped out.

At the center of the room was a fire pit, surrounded by couches and chairs and little tables. Four doors along the walls were opened onto small bedrooms that looked to be open to the air save for curtains hung for privacy.

“This will be yours as long as you remain,” Elladan said. “In the bedroom there are fresh clothes, should you wish to change, and—ah, here we are. This is Rhiwien.” He gestured to an elf who had just stepped in the door.

“Welcome,” Rhiwien said, smiling and bowing to them. “My rooms are directly across the hall, should you need anything do not hesitate to ask… Most likely I will be awake tonight, I am finishing a painting, so do not worry about disturbing me.”

“Thank you,” Blue said, smiling as well. “You’re all being very kind.”

“I will leave you here then,” Elladan said. “In the morning when you wake Rhiwien can bring you to the infirmary to see your friends.”

After Elladan and Rhiwien had left, Blue went first over to the table, examining the food offerings with deep interest. “Man,” she sighed. “I didn’t realize how starving I was until I smelled this…”

At the center of the table was a platter of cooked fish in some kind of fragrant white sauce, surrounding it were other dishes of still warm bread, fruits and vegetables, a bowl of salad, more sauces and other things than any of them could name. They all took a little bit of everything then went to sit by the fire pit to eat.

“I think I’ll go check on Ronan and Adam after we eat,” Gansey said. “Even if Adam’s asleep. I’ll sleep easier if I’ve seen that they’re okay with my own eyes.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep,” Henry said, shaking his head. “This is absolutely _wild_. Like I keep expecting to wake up? Also can we talk about the fact that elves look a little weird? I mean, they’re all ridiculously pretty but…”

“It’s those eyes,” Blue said. “They’re too big. And did you notice that they do that thing cat’s eyes do when light hits them and they kind of glow? It’s freaky.”

“ _Tapetum lucidum_ ,” Gansey said. “It’s this special layer in the eye that reflects light back into it to improve night vision, so I suppose it makes sense.”

Henry, chewing a mouthful of food, gestured at Gansey with his fork. “Okay you’re definitely not allowed to make fun of me and Lynch for being nerds, Mr. Wikipedia.”

“Wait so Ronan’s a _Lord of the Rings_ nut too?” Blue said.

“Yeah,” Gansey said. “Don’t make fun of him about it though, reading them was like a thing him and his dad used to do together.”

“Ah, got it,” Blue said, nodding.

“Do you two want to come with to go say hi or are you going to wait here?”

“I think we’ll wait here,” Blue said, exchanging a look with Henry.

Gansey nodded, finishing the last of his food and getting to his feet. “All right, I’ll be back in a little bit then. Try to stay out of trouble.”

He went across the hall to Rhiwien’s door, and she showed him up two more flights of stairs and across a few more bridges to the infirmary, or as she referred to it, the hall of healing. It was a long building, one of the few with actual glass paned windows. Inside each wall was lined with beds, though most were empty. At the far end Gansey could see another elf bent over a workbench, but he didn’t look too long as almost immediately he spotted Ronan and Adam.

“Will you be able to find your way back?” Rhiwien asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Gansey said, as he had made a point of paying attention on the way over. Then he turned and walked over to the bed where Adam lay, peacefully asleep, his hands resting on his stomach. Ronan was sitting in a chair next to him, feet up on the edge of the bed. He was chewing on his leather bracelets, and looked up when Gansey joined them.

“Oh, hey,” Ronan said, and in those two simple words told Gansey that Adam was indeed all right. “You guys made it.”

“Yes,” Gansey said. “Blue and Henry are back in our room, they’ll come by in the morning. How’s Adam?”

“Better,” Ronan said. “They did…something, I don’t know, to draw the poison out. He even woke up a little but they’d given him some painkillers so I think he thought I was fucking with him when I said we’re in Middle Earth.”

Gansey winced, carefully sitting on the edge of the bed near Adam’s feet. “Well, he’ll have a surprise to wake up to then. You going to stay here all night?”

“Yeah,” Ronan said, nodding. He was looking intently at Adam’s face. “I don’t want him waking up and not knowing what’s going on.”

“Did you eat?”

Again Ronan nodded, gesturing at a mostly emptied plate on the bedside table. “Someone brought something up for me.”

“Good.” Gansey folded his hands in his lap, then immediately unfolded them to worry at his lower lip with his thumb. “I don’t suppose you have any idea of how this happened?”

“No, dude,” Ronan said, making a face. “We were trying to figure out how to get Cabeswater 2.0 up and running again I don’t see how this has anything to do with that.”

Gansey let out a long sigh, running his fingers through his hair. “I have no idea what we’re supposed to do,” he said.

“Gandalf.”

Gansey blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

Still looking at Adam, Ronan tilted his head towards Gansey. “I was talking to one of the elves when they were working on Adam. It’s November of 3018.”

“Ronan, I have no idea what that means,” Gansey said.

Ronan clicked his tongue in annoyance. “We wound up here after the Council of Elrond but before the fellowship leaves. That means that Gandalf is here. If anyone can help us it’s going to be a goddamn wizard, right?”

“I…” Gansey opened his mouth and closed it again, nodding. “All right, that actually makes sense. Let’s do that.”

“Cool,” Ronan said.

Then Gansey reached over and nudged Ronan’s shoulder with his knuckles. “How are you doing?”

Ronan grunted. “My boyfriend just got shot with a poisoned arrow how do you think I’m doing?”

As if sensing his distress, Adam shifted on the bed, his brow furrowing. All he did however was turn a little onto his uninjured side and settle down again.

“I’m sorry,” Gansey said quietly to Ronan. “Adam’s okay now though. Do you want me to stay?”

“Nah,” Ronan said, rubbing his nose. “I’ll be okay. Go try to get some sleep. Or at least make sure Cheng doesn’t embarrass any of us.”

Gansey shook his head. “Henry’s not the one you need to worry about embarrassing anyone, he knows what’s going on at least.”

“Fine, fine,” Ronan said. He finally turned and looked at Gansey. “But seriously, I’ll be okay. You guys can come back in the morning, they said Adam should be up by then.”

“All right.” Gansey got to his feet. “We’ll figure this out. We always do.”

“And if not I guess there’s worse places we could end up living,” Ronan said. He looked up at Gansey deadpan for a moment before cracking a half grin. “G’night, Dick.”

“Good night, Ronan,” Gansey said, shaking his head as he turned to head back to his room.

A good night, he thought, was probably about the best they could hope for at the moment.

Or maybe that they would all wake up and find things back to normal in the morning.

But somehow he doubted it.


	2. Many Meetings

Adam woke slowly, his mind dragging itself reluctantly from sleep, thoughts jumbled and confused. His arm and shoulder ached, but it was the dull ache of a healing injury rather than the near unbearable pain he remembered from the previous night, a pain which had seemed to spike right to the marrow of his bones with each beat of his pulse. 

Near silence met his ears. There was from somewhere the sound of wind in trees and birds singing, but beyond that, nothing. No distant horns or engines, no barking dogs. For a few seconds he assumed he was at the Barns, the gentle quiet reminded him of that. Yes, he was at the Barns, still in bed, and maybe if he reached out he would find Ronan sprawled on his stomach beside him, still fast asleep. Maybe it was early enough for that.

But when Adam slid his hand over, he found only the edge of the bed, then empty air. He spread his fingers a little, then jumped when someone took his hand.

“Easy, sleeping beauty,” Ronan’s voice was accompanied by a gentle squeeze of his hand, “You actually awake this time?”

Adam’s eyes flew open. He was not in Ronan’s bedroom at the Barns. He was lying on a narrow bed in a long hall lined with other beds. Pale, early morning sunlight streamed in through tall windows. They were alone. Ronan was sitting on a chair beside his bed. Adam stared at his boyfriend for a moment, then let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “Jesus, Lynch, you look like a hobo.”

“Man, fuck you,” Ronan said with a deeply affectionate grin. With the hand not currently holding Adam’s, he reached up to rub his stubble covered jaw. “I haven’t had a chance to shave because  _someone_  got shot with a poisoned arrow last night and I’ve been sitting with him this whole time.”

Adam tried to stop laughing. He really did, but it just kept coming, even as he gasped out, “Poisoned arrow? What the hell?”

“Yeah.” Suddenly Ronan’s expression was serious. “Don’t you remember?”

And then the laughter stopped. Adam’s fingers tightened in Ronan’s. He shook his head. “I...we were running. The spell went wrong and sent us somewhere, and I remember running and then... I dunno, it was like when you have a really bad fever and you keep kind of wavering in and out of consciousness.” He tried to sit up, then had to let go of Ronan’s hand because his other arm was in a sling. With Ronan’s help Adam managed to sit up, his back supported by the pillows. He looked up and down the length of the ward, realizing with no small amount of panic that this sure didn’t look like any hospital he had ever seen. “Ronan,” he said after a beat. “Where are we?”

“Yeah, so, about that.” Ronan made a face, rubbing the back of his neck. “The spell did go wrong, like, way,  _way_ wrong. Uh... so you know  _Lord of the Rings_ , right?”

“I saw the movies, why--” Adam stopped and let out a weak laugh. “Aww, c’mon, now you’re just fucking with me.” 

Except he knew what Ronan’s ‘fucking with you’ face looked like and this wasn’t it. This was Ronan’s much rarer ‘I’m being dead serious’ face. 

Adam swallowed thickly. “Middle Earth?” he said, still somewhat disbelieving.

“I know,” Ronan said. “I was up almost all night trying to figure it out but I couldn’t. This is definitely Middle Earth though. We’re in Rivendell. Elrond’s two sons are the ones who saved our butts last night and brought us here.”

Gingerly, Adam reached up and put his hand against his injured shoulder. 

“Gansey, Blue and Henry are okay,” Ronan continued, still watching him. “They’re gonna come by when they get up, I assume.”

“Jesus,” Adam breathed. “Jesus Christ. This is unbelievable.”

Ronan nodded. “Yeah. I keep flipping between freaking out and thinking this is the coolest shit that’s happened to us.”

“How are we going to get home, Ronan?” Adam asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

“No fucking clue,” Ronan said. “But we’ll figure it out, okay?” Then he leaned forward, reaching out to lightly touch Adam’s arm. “Hey... I’m just... I’m just really glad you’re okay. I thought you were going to—I'm just glad you’re okay.”

Adam offered a weak half-smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. Actually considering that I got shot last night I’m feeling pretty great.”

They both looked up then when the doors at the far end of the room opened and a woman came in carrying a tray. She was tall and strongly built, with brown skin and coppery hair held back by an embroidered scarf. When she got closer, Adam noticed her ears were distinctly pointed, and there was something more than a little alien about the scale of her facial features. 

Still, the smile she gave them was warm and kind, and as she came to a stop beside the bed she said in lyrically accented English, “Adam, I am very glad to see you awake. You are looking much better this morning, how do you feel?”

“Um, pretty good, ma’am, thank you,” Adam said, gazing up at her. 

“Your shoulder does not pain you badly?”

He shook his head, shooting Ronan a baffled, sideways glance. “It’s a little sore and stiff, but alright.”

“I told you he was tough,” Ronan told the woman with a proud grin.

She chuckled, moving to set the tray down on the small table beside the bed. “That you did, I am glad to see you are were correct.” Then to Adam she said, “I am Issel, one of the healers who tended to you last night.”

“Oh,” Adam nodded. “Well, um, thank you, really, for saving...my life...” Saying it out loud sent a shiver down his spine. It was only glancing at Ronan and seeing, despite Ronan’s best attempts to hide it, what a toll the previous night had taken on him emotionally that Adam realized just how badly he had been injured. This was hard to reconcile with how he felt now, which just made it all the more unnerving.

Issel smiled and inclined her head a little. Then she gestured at the tray she had set down, which bore two covered bowls and a pitcher of what smelled like coffee. “You should eat. Once you are done I will change your dressings but then you should not need to remain in the infirmary, as long as you are careful not to overexert yourself for the next few days. Lord Elrond has been kind enough to extend the hospitality of his house to you and your companions for as long as you should require.”

“Thank you,” Adam said again, feeling a bit dazed.

“I will just be working over there,” Issel said, gesturing towards the far end of the hall where Adam could see rows of wooden cabinets and a large work bench. “Wave me over when you are done eating. Take your time.” And with another smile she turned and strode off.

“She’s pretty cool,” Ronan said. “I was talking to her last night.”

Adam nodded, closing his eyes to try and give his brain a chance to catch up with everything. Then he turned back to Ronan, his cheeks turning a little pink as he asked, “Hey, Ro, um...bathroom?”

With an absolutely infuriating smirk, Ronan reached down and pulled something out from under the bed, dropping it in Adam’s lap.

“Don’t think just because we’re in Middle Earth I won’t kill you, Lynch,” Adam said, looking down at the small metal chamber pot. “I’m not pissing in a bowl.”

Ronan let out a hoot of laughter that echoed in the empty ward. Then he relented and said, “Yeah okay there’s an actual bathroom, it’s through those doors down there by where Issel’s working. Only I’ll warn you now if you have to ask anyone here where it is say ‘toilet’ otherwise they think you’re asking about the actual baths and they get really confused. I learned that the hard way.”

“Okay.” Adam continued to scowl at him as he swung his legs out from under the blanket. He was still in his jeans, though his t-shirt had been traded for a loose-fitting linen tunic at some point. “I’ll be right back.”

“Have fun,” Ronan said, still looking far too pleased with himself. 

The minute Adam turned his back, however, he smiled a little, because he knew very well the joking meant Ronan was starting to relax.

***

When Adam returned, they ate the breakfast Issel had brought, which turned out to be a savory oatmeal like dish with soft boiled eggs and thin slices of smoked meat and, miraculously, a dark roasted coffee. Once they finished Issel came over and checked Adam’s wound, which already was showing signs of healing. She had just put fresh dressings on it when the doors opened again and in rushed Henry, Blue and Gansey, the enthusiastic trio immediately surrounding Adam and smothering him with hugs. Ronan rolled his eyes but, when no one was looking, he did let out a soft sigh of relief.

“We’ve been up for a few hours already,” Blue said as she settled cross-legged at the end of Adam’s bed. “We had breakfast with Elladan in our room and then were exploring a bit. Him and his brother had to go out again today though they’re...scouting or something.”

Gansey, standing by the foot of the bed, nodded. “He said we’re free to stay as long as we like.”

“Well that’s good since we don’t really have anywhere else to go right now,” Ronan said, making a face. “We should try to talk to Gandalf today.”

“Issel said I don’t need to stay in bed,” Adam said, glancing around at the others. “We could go try to find him.”

Gansey nodded. “Yes. Let's do that. It can’t be that hard to find a wizard, right?”

***

Except it was, apparently, that hard to find a wizard. Two days passed. They spent most of that time exploring Rivendell, and though they spoke to a number of different elves, and though all of those elves seemed well aware that Gandalf was in Rivendell, none of them were able to give a striaght answer about where, exactly, the wizard was keeping himself. Or perhaps they were able and simply didn’t feel like sharing with the group of strange humans. Either way, by the morning of their third full day in Rivendell, the teens still had not made any progress in figuring out how to return home. 

Henry was trying very hard not to let this discourage the others. He, for one, thought they should enjoy this unprecedented adventure now that Adam wasn’t in immediate peril, and he could tell that Ronan—despite all his glowering—was on his side. 

That third day found Henry awake well before the others. It was a bright, crisp autumn morning, clear and beautiful, and so he dressed and ate and slipped out to do some solo exploration. The area surrounding the building with their quarters was familiar to him by now, so Henry headed to one of his favorite spots, a large stone terrace with a perfect view of a large, spectacular waterfall and at this time of day was bathed in warm sunlight. 

He had not been there long, standing by the waist high railing and looking out at the river, when there was a sudden burst of laughter from nearby and the sound of feet on the smooth paving stones. Henry barely had time to turn around when someone collided with him, moving so fast they were only a blur. Both he and the stranger were sent tumbling.

“Root and tree Pip you almost knocked him into the river!” a voice nearby cried out in alarm.

Henry blinked furiously, pushing himself up onto his elbows. He found himself looking at the person who had run into him, a young man who looked not much older than Henry himself, except he couldn’t have been more than four and a half feet tall. He had a round, friendly looking face and curly, golden-brown hair. 

“I am  _so_ sorry,” he said, his eyes going wide. 

“You...” And then Henry, though he tried to control himself, he really did, let out a delighted laugh. “You’re  _Pippin_?!” 

The man—hobbit, he was definitely a hobbit with those feet—gaped at him. “You know my name,” he said, then turned to look at his companion who was edging over to them. “Merry! I’m famous!”

Meriadoc Brandybuck folded his arms over his chest and gave Pippin a very flat look. “He probably heard me calling your name, you dope.”

“No, I do know both of--” But Henry stopped himself. What was he going to say? That they were heroes in a story he knew? He closed his mouth, thought quickly, then said, “One of the elves mentioned there were some hobbits staying here, she mentioned your names. I’ve never met a hobbit before I got a little excited.”

That explanation seemed to reassure Merry and Pippin, who grinned nearly identical grins before moving to help Henry to his feet, though this immediately put Henry a good foot above them so he turned to sit on the edge of a large stone planter instead.

“I’m Henry,” he said.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Merry said. “You aren’t an elf, are you?”

“Nu-uh,” Henry said. “Just human. My friends and I were attacked by an orc a couple days ago and Elrond’s sons rescued us. One of my friends was hurt so they brought us here.”

“An orc,” Pippin said, a slight frown creasing his brow. “Imagine.” He glanced at Merry. “I guess that explains why Strider’s been out and about...”

Merry made a shushing motion with his hand, glaring at Pippin. Then he turned back to Henry with a smile. “Where’re you from, Henry?”

“Uh,” again Henry found himself having to stop and think, “Somewhere really far away. You wouldn’t have heard of it. We were, um...well, we’re a little lost. I mean, we know where we are, but this isn’t where we meant to end up.”

It was clear from the initial blank looks the two hobbits gave him that this didn’t quite compute, but a moment later they both smiled and nodded as though they did understand. 

“Actually,” Henry said then, struck with a sudden idea. “Maybe you two can help. We’ve been trying to get a, um, audience, I guess, with Gandalf. We wanted to ask him about something, only no one here seems to know where he is.”

“Oh we know where he is,” Pippin said, smug to know something that elves apparently didn’t. “Sure. He’s having breakfast with our friends Frodo and Sam, d’you want to come talk to him?”

Merry elbowed him. “ _Pip_.”

Henry smiled. “Maybe we could meet back here? I’ll go get my friends and you can go get Gandalf?”

The two hobbits looked at each other and appeared to have a silent conference before Merry turned back to Henry with a nod. “Yes, we could do that. Well, try at least, I doubt we could make Gandalf come if he doesn’t want but he’s the sort to enjoy talking to new people so I don’t see why not...”

“Awesome,” Henry said.

“I suppose he is,” Pippin said with a laugh. “He’s really quite nice, though, for a wizard.”

“You say that as though you’ve met many wizards,” Merry said, stifling a laugh.

Pippin stuck his nose in the air. “Maybe I have.”

“You are so full of cow shit,” Merry said, laughing as he gave his friend a playful shove.

Henry cleared his throat, though he was grinning at their antics. “Okay so I’ll see you back here in a little bit?”

“Right,” Pippin said, attempting to fend off Merry. “A little bit!”

***

Henry did not tell them where he was taking them. Ronan was already enough on edge and he didn’t appreciate surprises in the best of times. However, his grumpiness dissolved almost immediately when Henry led them down to a wide terrace where, waiting for them on a bench, was an old man, tall and clad all in grey, with a long grey beard and hair and incredibly bushy eyebrows. Leaning up against the wall near him was a tall, gnarled staff.

“Holy shit,” Ronan breathed.

Gandalf watched them approach pensively, but when they drew nearer he smiled warmly. “Well,” he said. “You must be the ones Elladan and Elrohir found wandering.”

When none of the others seemed capable of speaking, Gansey nodded. “Yes, sir, that would be us.”

“Hm,” Gandalf said, pausing to look over each of them in turn. “Yes, Elrohir said there was something strange about you and I see it now for myself, though I cannot quite put my finger on it. What are your names?”

“I’m Richard Gansey...well, just Gansey,” Gansey said. “This is Blue Sargent, Henry Cheng, Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch.”

Gandalf’s eyes flicked to each of them once again and he gave a little nod at each name as though focusing on committing them to his mind.  “I was told you wished to speak with me.”

“Yes,” Gansey said, a little slower and more hesitant now. “It... probably will explain why you and Elrohir find us so strange. It’s very strange. Actually...” he let out a weak laugh “...it’s so strange, you probably won’t even believe us. It has to do with why, or rather how we’re here.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of the wizard’s lips, though this could have to do with the awed looks on most of the teens’ faces. “Let me be the judge of how believable your story is,” he said. “Please. Tell me what you wished to say.”

And so they told him. They told him everything, figuring it would be better to be up front from the get-go rather than to build up a complex lie. They told Gandalf the truth about how they found themselves in Middle Earth. They told him how they knew this place, how they knew  _him_  from stories. At first Gansey alone spoke, but Ronan and Henry soon joined in, throwing out facts that would be seemingly impossible for them to know, from Gandalf’s stand point, everything from the  _Silmarillion_  to tiny details from the appendixes of  _The Lord of the Rings_.

“So...yeah,” Ronan finished lamely after the three of them had spent a good half hour talking. “That’s...what’s going on. We’re kind of excited to be here, meeting all of you, but also we’d like to get home eventually.”

Gandalf had taken a long pipe from his belt while he listened and though he had not lit it, he was now chewing thoughtfully on the mouthpiece, his expression never going beyond only mild surprise. He also did not say anything when Ronan finally fell silent.

Ronan looked at Gansey, then at Henry, who shrugged. 

“So?” Ronan said, turning back to Gandalf. “What do you think?”

“I think most people would believe you to be quite mad,” Gandalf said.

“But you don’t?” Blue said, half question, half hopeful guess.

“Every single observation and fact your friends offered up just now were completely true,” Gandalf said. “And I do not know how a servant of the enemy would know even half of them.”

Gansey’s expression brightened. “So, you’re going to help us?”

“I will do my best,” Gandalf said. “Though there are more pressing matters at hand, and I must think on this a bit, since it is certainly a strange tale you lay before me. I also do not believe it is a coincidence that you would come to us now, of all times. Unless you have objections, I will also speak to Lord Elrond to see what he makes of this...”

Gansey looked at the others, then back. “Yes, that would be fine, thank you, really. Any help you can give us is greatly appreciated.”

“We will figure out something for you,” Gandalf said, reassuringly. “And in the meantime, there is no safer place in Middle Earth for you to bide your time. Though, I would offer a word of caution—it may be in your best interest to keep the extent of your knowledge a secret, do you understand?”

They all nodded.

“Good.” Gandalf gave them another kindly smile. “I will go speak with Elrond right away, assuming he is free. The five of you should dine in the great hall tonight, I will be there, and I am sure others are curious to see your faces.”

“We can,” Gansey said, nodding. “We’ll see you then.”

With a final nod, Gandalf turned and made his way down a stairway and out of sight. 

He had barely been gone five seconds when Merry and Pippin bounded up the same stair, followed by another pair of hobbits who moved at a slightly calmer pace.

Seeing the small figures, Blue let out a delighted squeal, then, realizing how loud it had been, blushed and put her hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”

Pippin let out a crow of laughter, turning to the pair behind him. “See? I told you they love hobbits! Henry!” he turned and waved, then gestured at the two hobbits behind him. “This is Frodo and Sam. Who are the rest of your friends?”

Henry, who had shrunken back shyly in Gandalf’s presence, stepped forward again, grinning almost as widely as Pippin. “This is Blue, Gansey, Ronan and Adam.” 

“Pippin said you don’t come from Middle Earth,” Frodo said, in a skeptical tone.

“We don’t,” Ronan said. “We’re from....”

“Upper earth,” Henry said, then yelped when Ronan punched his arm.

Frodo gave him a flat look. “There’s no such thing.”

“Henry’s being dumb,” Ronan said. “We’re just from somewhere really far away. It’s hard to explain. And a long story.” He could see, peeking out from the collar of Frodo’s tunic, the links of a delicate silver chain that hung around his neck.

As though sensing what Ronan was looking at, Frodo frowned slightly, lifting his hand to absently touch something that hung beneath his shirt. 

“Was Gandalf able to help you?” Merry asked, breaking the momentary silence. 

“Well, sort of,” Henry said. “He said he has to talk to Elrond, but he’s going to try.”

Merry nodded. “I’ll bet he can. He’s good at... well, everything.” He then turned to Blue, very pointedly, and asked, “Are you part Hobbit?”

“ _What_?” Blue spluttered, stuck halfway between anger and hysterics.

“How could someone be ‘part hobbit’?” Sam said, looking at Merry with a bemused frown.

“Well  _I_  don’t know!” Merry said. “You can have half elves, can’t you? Isn’t Elrond called Half-elven? Why couldn’t you have half hobbits? Look at her, she’s so short  _and_  I think she looks like a Brandybuck. But her feet are tiny. We could be cousins.”

“Oh my god,” Blue groaned. “I’m not half hobbit—Ronan shut up.” She turned and glared at Ronan, who had started laughing.

Frodo sighed heavily, looking skyward and shaking his head. Then to Blue he said, “I think Merry just thinks you’re pretty.”

“Frodo!” Merry shouted, lunging at him and initiating a chase that took them all around the edge of the terrace. 

Ronan, still laughing, leaned towards Adam and said quietly, “Hobbits are fucking amazing.”

“This isn’t...weird for you?” Adam said, his own expression worried as he watched Merry finally catch up to Frodo and playfully muss up his hair.

“What, because they’re fictional characters?”

Adam looked at him. “No, because we know what happens to them. All the bad shit. They look so happy right now, but...”

“We also know that they survive,” Ronan said. “And that they get to be heroes.”

“In the version we know,” Adam said. “Ronan, we don’t know that us being here isn’t going to change things.”

“No,” Ronan said, though his expression had faded. “No we’re not going to be here long enough to change anything.

Adam raised his eyebrows.

Ronan gave him a look. “Yes, I’m sure. We’re going to find a way home before we get involved in anything, I know we will.”

 _Liar_ , said a little voice in the back of his mind. 

***

They spent the rest of the afternoon with the hobbits. Once Sam got over his shyness around them, he was full of questions about where they had come from, most of which were difficult to answer both because the United States was so vastly different from Middle Earth and also because it was hard to avoid making references to things that for the hobbits hadn’t happened yet. They did talk about Bilbo’s adventures with the dwarves, however, since that was a story that was well known enough that they could claim they had heard it somewhere.

The hobbits were already leading the teens to the dining hall when the bell rang to signal that food would soon be served. The great hall of Elrond’s house was a large, open room filled with long tables. Most ran the length of the room, but one stood perpendicular to the others and raised up at the far end. This table was already full.

“That is Lord Elrond in the middle,” Frodo explained as the teens and hobbits found a place at one of the long tables, near to the front. “Gandalf is on his left, obviously. On his right is Glorfindel--”

“Hey, quick question,” Henry said, leaning forward. “Is that Glorfindel the same Glorfindel that fought the balrog at the fall of Gondolin?”

Frodo, who had, by this time, become greatly amused by the endless and apparently hilariously disconnected string of questions that came mostly from Henry, nodded. “Yes.”

“So he  _did_  return from the halls of Mandos,” Henry said, looking up at the golden-haired elf with an awe struck expression. “That’s incredible. And he remembers Gondolin.”

“I would not ask him about it,” Frodo cautioned. “I imagine it is not a pleasant subject for him.”

Gansey was watching them with raised eyebrows. “Should I even ask what you’re talking about, Cheng?”

“It’s from the  _Silmarillion_ ,” Henry said. “Gondolin was this elvish city that—what?”

“We’re too hungry for a history lesson,” Blue said. Gansey looked like he disagreed, but Blue had her hand over his mouth. She turned to Frodo with a smile. “I do want to know who else is at the high table though.”

Frodo nodded. “Beside Glorfindel is the Lady Arwen, and I do not know the two elves to her right but I believe they are part of Lord Elrond’s household. The elf on Gandalf’s other side is Erestor and beside him is...”

As Frodo continued on, Ronan looked around the now steadily filling hall, trying to see if he could pick out any other people...characters...whatever, that he recognized. The other end of their table was occupied by a group of dwarves, and though Ronan knew chances were Gimli was one of them, he couldn’t pick him out. The only dwarf he could make any reasonable guess at was the one who appeared about twice the width of the rest, since that could only be Bombur.

“No one really looks like they do in the movies,” Adam said. “The elves are a lot more...”

“Diverse?” Ronan said with a slight grin. It was true, and not just in regards to the elves either: within the three races present at the other tables—elves, humans and dwarves—there were clear cultural variances, both in manner of dress and physical appearance. 

“Diverse and less human looking,” Adam said. “I mean... I know they’re immortal but like, look at them, there’s almost no indication of age. And their eyes still freak me out a little.”

Ronan nodded, looking now at a group of elves at the next table over. They were dressed differently from the Rivendell residents, primarily in shades of brown and green and silver. Most of them had dark brown or red hair, but one in the middle had silver-blonde locks that were braided back from his face in elaborate patterns. A circlet of silver leaves glinted at his brow.

“Cheng,” Ronan said, leaning around Adam to nudge Henry. He jerked his chin at the elf. “You think that’s Legolas?”

Henry half rose from his seat, his eyes widening. “Hey Frodo you know Legolas from the council, right? Is that him?”

“Um,” Frodo had to kneel on his chair to see who they were talking about. “Yes that’s--hang on a moment, how do you know about the council?”

Henry paled a little as all the hobbits turned to look at him in surprise. “Whoops. Um.”

“Gandalf told us about it,” Blue said quickly. 

But Frodo was looking warily at them, and once again Ronan saw him touch what had to be the ring hanging beneath his shirt. “Gandalf told  _you_ , complete strangers, about the secret council?”

“Um...” Blue was clearly scrambling for a non-suspicious answer. “He just said that you had met with a bunch of leaders...he didn’t say what about.” 

“And how did you know Legolas was there?” Frodo said.

Blue looked at Ronan with a slightly desperate look on her face.

“Well those are clearly Mirkwood elves,” Ronan said, gesturing. “And we knew that there’s a lot of shit going on over there so I didn’t think Thranduil would have come, obviously that means he would’ve sent Legolas, right? Look, dude, you think we’d be here if we were spies or something? You really think Elladan and Elrohir wouldn’t have either killed us or taken us prisoner on the spot if we were bad?”

Frodo opened his mouth, then closed it again and nodded. “I suppose that’s true. Forgive me, it has been a very difficult past few months, and I’ve spent so much of it having to be doubly wary of strangers...”

“Hey, no worries, man,” Ronan said. “I get it.”

Then, to his surprise, Frodo laughed. “You have such a queer manner of speech, Ronan! All of you do. But I like it. ‘No worries.’ That is...a good thing to have. No worries.”

“Yeah,” Ronan said, but his smile was incredibly forced. He thought about what Adam had said earlier, and his smile faded even more. Adam glanced at Ronan, and Ronan knew he was thinking the exact same thing: Frodo had absolutely no idea just how many worries there were in store for him.


	3. Rivendell

December descended on the valley and brought with it chilled winds down to the valley and from across the moors. In the late afternoon, with the sun sinking in the west, its long rays illuminated the faces of the Misty Mountains, showing that snow had already begun to fall there heavily, though in Rivendell the last of the red and gold leaves still clung to the trees.

According to Ronan, Elladan and Elrohir were out with a number of elves and rangers scouting the surrounding countryside in anticipation of the Fellowship’s departure in a few weeks. They would, at this time, also be looking for any signs of the Nazgul, or Gollum. 

Lately, Blue found herself flipping back and forth between wonder and despair. Rivendell was incredible beyond belief, the hobbits were a delight, the elves wonderful, and Gandalf perhaps the kindest person she had met in a long time, but she missed her mother and family, and she missed her own bed.

One afternoon she, Gansey and Henry were sitting with Sam and Frodo, playing a card game Sam was fond of called Grasshopper, while Bilbo sat nearby regaling them with one of his latest poems. Both Gansey and Sam were getting into the game, which bore some similarities to games like slapjack or Egyptian rat screw, but Blue felt like her mind was a million miles away. She jumped a little when someone touched her arm, and looked up from her cards to see that Frodo had scooted closer while the other three were engaged in some light-hearted discussion of something probably not related to the game.

“Are you alright Blue?” Frodo asked, brow furrowed with concern. “You’ve been quiet all afternoon.”

It was hard to remember sometimes that Frodo was a little older than her, both in literal years and also relatively speaking in terms of hobbit versus human development. 

“Yeah I’m just...” Blue let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m homesick. I miss my mom and my house. I mean...this is amazing, being here. I can’t believe I’m in Rivendell, and then I feel silly because sometimes I wake up and I’m like... all I want is to be able to go sit under the tree in my own back yard for a bit.”

Frodo smiled sadly. “Don’t feel silly. I understand completely. When I set out from the Shire I did not think I would be gone so long.”

“And now you’re going to be gone even longer,” Blue said.

“I...” Frodo gave himself a little shake. “I keep forgetting you know about that.” He tilted his head. “Did Gandalf also tell you  _why_  we are setting out?”

Blue pursed her lips, then sighed and nodded. “The ring. Yeah we know about that too.”

“Is that why Ronan kept staring at me?” Frodo asked, his fingers moving to touch the slight bump in his tunic where the ring hung beneath it. “Because he knew I wore it?”

“Probably,” Blue said, then she laughed. “He also just stares at people sometimes. If he’s freaking you out just ignore him.”

Frodo tilted his head. “Freaking me out?”

“Um...” Blue made a face. “Yeah like...scaring you, making you feel like he’s being weird.”

“You all have such strange manners of speaking,” Frodo said. “It’s fascinating. All five of you are fascinating in many ways, actually. I’m glad, it’s helping me feel less anxious to have new friends to learn about.”

Blue smiled. “I’m glad we can help. We really like you all a lot too.”

“Even though Bilbo talks too much?” Frodo said, laughing.

“I don’t think he does,” Blue said. “Besides, we like hearing his stories and songs.”

Frodo grinned, nodding, but Blue could tell by the way he squinted his eyes that he was already thinking hard about something else. He had stacked the cards he’d been holding in his hand and was tapping them absently against the table. Then he looked up. “Blue, may I ask you something?”

“Yeah, of course,” she said.

“You aren’t just travelers who got lost, are you,” Frodo said, and it didn’t really sound like a question. “There’s more to it.”

Blue swallowed thickly, shifting in her seat. She looked over, but the others were still occupied, now trying to build a card castle while Bilbo gave them less than useful tips. She set her cards down and looked back at Frodo. “I think you know the answer to that already,” she said quietly.

“I can tell when Gandalf isn’t giving us the whole story,” Frodo said, smiling, though his brow remained furrowed. “Which is nearly all the time. But that’s why you know so much about what’s going on, and why you recognize people, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Blue said, carefully. “It’s...difficult to explain. We are from another place, but it’s...like a whole different world, pretty much.”

“Like Valinor?” Frodo asked.

“I...” Blue frantically racked her brain, trying to remember what the heck Valinor was. “I don’t know. Maybe. Sorry I don’t really know what that is.”

Frodo laughed, though it was a surprised sound, not an unkind one “You know the names of many of the elves but not what Valinor is. It is their home, and where many of them are beginning to return, a land far to the west where their gods dwell. But one cannot simply get on a boat and sail there, I do not think. There is some magic involved.”

“Oh, right,” Blue said. “I suppose it’s kind of like that then. Sort of.”

The door opened then, letting in an out of breath Adam and Ronan. 

“Hey, Sargent, Cheng, Dick,” Ronan said, motioning to them. “C’mon Elrond wants to talk to us.”

Gansey looked up, startled. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know,” Ronan said with a large shrug. “Maybe he figured out how to send us home. Let's go see.”

Blue cast another look at Frodo, who smiled encouragingly. “We’ll see you at dinner,” he said.

The five teens left the hobbits’ room and found Gandalf waiting for them just outside in the hall. After making sure everyone was present, the wizard led them away and up through Rivendell towards the large building that was the actual house of Elrond. It sat, graceful and grand at the top of the settlement, looking down and out over the valley. Once inside Gandalf led them down a long corridor to a set of double doors that opened onto a vast study, with dark shelves holding thousands of books and scrolls and tall windows that let in the fading afternoon sunlight. 

At a large oak table spread with maps and papers stood Elrond. They had not been introduced to him, but had seen him from afar and Blue recognized him immediately. Like all elves there was something just alien enough about him to make him seem a little disconcerting, but his features were a little less delicate than say, those of Rhiwien, who was one of the elves they interacted with the most since her rooms were near theirs. Elrond had dark hair, almost black, and the silver circlet he wore shone brightly against it. There was another man standing beside him, human, not elf, tall and strong looking with shoulder length dark hair and a sharp jaw covered in just the right amount of stubble to look ‘ruggedly handsome.’ Blue didn’t know who that man was, but both he and Elrond looked up when they entered.

It was the unknown man who spoke first. "These are  _children_ ," he exclaimed. "I thought surely Elladan exaggerated when he said as much! But you say they know of the ring?”

“And many other things besides,” Gandalf said, looking amused. “I do recall I used the word ‘remarkable’.” 

Elrond, standing with his hands clasped behind his back and a pensive expression on his ageless face, nodded, turning to regard the teens each in turn. “Gandalf has told us that you believe you come from another world, and that you know everything that has happened here, and that will happen, as it is to you as stories?”

“Yes, sir,” Gansey said. “That’s correct. There’s several books, and also some mov—well, let's just say theatrical productions.”

“And where is it that you say you are from?” Elrond asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Virginia,” Gansey said. “It’s in a country called the United States of America.” He let out a nervous little laugh. “I’m just going to go ahead and assume that means nothing to you.”

Elrond turned to Gandalf, giving him a sort of ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ expression before regarding Gansey again. “You realize, of course, that this sounds like utter nonsense.”

“It isn’t, I swear,” Gansey said, touching a hand to his chest. He gestured back at Ronan and Henry, though Henry made a nervous sound and edged closer to Blue. “Seriously, these two know the stories back to front, ask them something the average person couldn’t possibly know.”

Elrond was silent for a moment, tapping his fingertips together.

“Two of the three rings given to the elves are in this room,” Ronan said after the silence stretched on for too long. He tilted his head up and smirked one of the defiant smirks he saved for adults who thought they knew more than him. 

Elrond’s expression, however, had turned from curiosity to alarm, bordering quite possibly on anger. “Why do you think that?”

“I don’t think it, man, I  _know_  it,” Ronan said. “You’ve got one and so does Gandalf. Galadriel has the other one. You got yours from Gil-galad and Gandalf got his from Cirdan the shipwright.”

“ _Maer_ _Valar_ ,” murmured the man standing beside Elrond. He looked at the elf with wide eyes, but Elrond was still staring at Ronan intently. 

“Who are you?” Elrond asked sharply. “I want the truth.”

“We’ve told you the truth,” Gansey said, quickly, before Ronan could dig himself in deeper. “I swear, sir, we’re not lying, we’re just as confused as you are about it but we aren’t lying.”

Gandalf stepped in, thankfully, clearing his throat. “Lord Elrond, I do not think I need to tell you that strange as they are these children are not servants of the enemy.”

“And yet there is something about them I can sense that I do not understand,” Elrond said, looking at Gandalf.

“As do I,” Gandalf said. “And perhaps we will never figure out entirely whether their world is separated by some magic spell or simply by many long years, but I do not know whether that matters. What I do know is that for these people to appear to us now, at this time, with the knowledge they possess is no coincidence.”

The yet unknown man shifted, rubbing his jaw. “You believe they have a part to play.”

“I do, very much so,” Gandalf said. “What that part is I do not know. But I do not think we should disregard them as an issue to be dealt with later.” This last part was said with a pointed look at Elrond.

Elrond muttered something in Elvish, his words incomprehensible to the teens but his tone and expression clearly frustrated.

“I understand that,” Gandalf said patiently. “All of us have a great deal on our minds right now, but if they were sent to help us...”

“Sent?” Gansey said frowning a little. “You think someone...we were just doing a spell, it went wrong. I don’t think anyone sent us.”

Gandalf glanced at him. “Whatever power you were tapping into sent you here, Mr. Gansey. So yes, you were  _sent_.”

“...huh,” Gansey said, worrying his lower lip with his thumb. He glanced at Blue like he thought she would have something useful to say, but she didn’t, so she reached out and took his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. Clearly trying to focus on something more graspable he gestured at the man beside Elrond and said, “Sorry, who are you?”

The man started to open his mouth but Gandalf silenced him with a gesture. “I wanted to see if any of you five could identify him,” the wizard said. 

Gansey blinked at the man slowly. Then he turned and looked at Ronan and Henry. Ronan shrugged and they all turned to look at the man again. Then suddenly Ronan snapped, “Jesus, Cheng,  _what_?”

Henry blanched when everyone turned to look at him.

“What?” Ronan said again. “Why are you, like, mute all of a sudden?”

“I have incredibly bad social anxiety sometimes please do not yell at me,” Henry hissed, giving Ronan a pained look. “Elrond is very intimidating.”

Ronan huffed. “Okay but seriously why are you jabbing me in the ribs?”

Henry held up his right hand, tapped his middle finger, then pointed at the man. “His ring, Ronan. Look at it.”

They all turned back around. The man was looking at them expectantly, his arms folded over his chest. On his hand he wore a large silver ring in the shape of two snakes with golden crowns, holding a jewel in their mouths. It looked very old.

“H-huh- _holy_ shit,” Ronan said, then let out a slightly hysterical and very un-Ronan laugh. “Holy shit!”

“Yes, Mr. Lynch?” Gandalf said with a pleased smile.

“Aragorn,” Ronan said, and for just a moment his face took on a look of what Blue could only describe as child-like wonder. “You’re  _Aragorn_.”

“I am,” Aragorn said, spreading his arms before folding them over his chest again. His eyebrows were raised skeptically, but he was smiling, and the expression warmed the surprise in his eyes. “You recognized Barahir’s ring, that is...curious.” He glanced at Gandalf and Elrond. “Though I suppose it fits with all else we have heard.”

“So, what’s the next step then?” Gansey asked. “To get us back where we belong, I mean. We would like to help, if there’s anything we can help with.”

Elrond’s expression became a little less stern at that. “Unfortunately, unless any of you can read both modern and ancient dialects of Elvish and Numenorean I do not think there will be much you can do. Our first task is to research, to see if any such thing has happened before, or anything similar. I will see if there are members of my household who can assist with that.”

“Right,” Gansey said, nodding. “Well, we’ll just keep our fingers crossed then.” When Elrond gave him an utterly blank look he waved his hand. “Never mind.”

“We will try to be as quick about it as we can,” Elrond promised. “In the meantime, the five of you may return to what you are doing. Gandalf? If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a word...”

To everyone’s surprise, Aragorn walked with them to the door and out into the hall, though he said nothing until the study doors had closed behind him. “Truly we are... stories, to you?” he said.

“Yes,” Gansey said with a small smile. “And really well-loved ones too. Probably some of the most famous, though as you can tell some of us know more about them than others.” He grinned at Ronan and Henry. Ronan rolled his eyes and Henry remained where he had been, watching Aragorn but half hiding behind Blue.

“Remarkable,” Aragorn said. “And you yourselves are not anything more than human?”

Gansey shifted. “Weeeell, I mean, we all do magic, if that’s what you’re asking. And Blue’s part tree spirit, so no, we’re not... normal humans for our time. But that doesn’t have anything to do with how we know so much about Middle Earth.”

Aragorn did a double take, then looked at Blue. “A tree spirit?”

“Not like an Ent,” Blue said hastily. “I don’t know if you have a word for them. We call them  _tir_ _e_ _elintes_ _._ My dad’s one and my mom’s a... person.”

“ _Tir_ _e_ _elintes_ ,” Aragorn said, even more surprised now. “I have heard that before, or something very similar in a Rohirric dialect, there are spirits in the wild forests which are called that, and the elves have a name for them as well –  _Galad_ _Gelethion_ , tree lights, the jewels that Yavanna put at the heart of her most beloved trees.”

“Tree lights, yes!” Blue gasped, smiling. “We call them that too.”

Aragorn smiled, shaking his head in slow disbelief. Finally he let out a laugh and said, “Better be careful, the Mirkwood elves may try to kidnap you.”

“Listen, if Thranduil looks  _anything_  like Lee Pace I don’t think I’d have a problem with that,” Blue said.

“...I beg your pardon?” Aragorn said.

Gansey let out a disgruntled sound and wrapped his arm around the now hysterically giggling Blue. “Nothing. Ignore her.  _Jane._ ” He tried to put a hand over her mouth but Blue pushed him away with a grin.

“Well,” Aragorn said, still looking bemused. “I am glad none of you are too terribly distraught by this. Come, I will walk back with you, I wish to speak with the hobbits....”

***

They did not tell the hobbits about what had been discussed in Elrond’s study, and the hobbits didn’t ask, though Blue did catch Pippin shooting them curious looks for at least an hour after they returned. 

After finishing their card game (finally), they all had dinner together as they were now used to doing. Later, after darkness had settled over the valley, pushed back only by the fires and lights of Rivendell, the hobbits took the teens to one of the common halls, a long room with vaulting ceilings, filled with brightly burning braziers to keep back the early winter chill. There were not only elves here but a few humans and dwarves as well. Everyone was lounging around on cushions or couches or chairs, talking, eating, or laughing quietly amongst themselves. 

Bilbo was with them, and while Blue and the others were distracted by the sights and sounds of the vast hall, the little old hobbit spotted someone he knew and started off across the hall without a word to anyone. When they caught up to him, he was with a group of dwarves, who welcomed not only him but the other hobbits as well.

“These are new friends of ours,” Bilbo said cheerfully, gesturing at the teens. “Here we have Blue and Gansey, Ronan and Adam, and last but not least Henry. They come from very far away and may seem strange but they are all wonderful.”

Grinning, Blue and the others murmured greetings to the dwarves. As he had been earlier in Elrond’s study, Henry had once again retreated to shyness, but he was grinning a little at least.

“You five, these dwarves are emissaries of Dain, the king under the mountain,” Bilbo said. Then, confidingly to the dwarf nearest him he said, “They know the story of our adventure very well, they knew it already even before they met me!”

“But you told them your version anyway,” Frodo said, laughing.

“We didn’t mind,” Blue said, when Bilbo gave his nephew a little scowl. “The version we knew was watered down a lot.”

“Sure, you start to mind after you’ve heard it for the twentieth time,” said a dwarf who appeared to be younger than most of the others. His dark reddish-brown beard was woven into intricate braids, each with a little gold band at the end. He grinned, leaning forward to nudge an older dwarf seated in front of him, saying something in their own language. The other dwarf snorted and said something back and the two of them laughed. 

The dwarf Bilbo had been speaking with motioned for the others to make room. “Come,” he said to the teens. “Join us for a bit.”

Blue was the first to sit, pulling Gansey down beside her. Henry sat with them on the floor cushions as well, and Ronan and Adam sat on the base of one of the great pillars, putting them just a little above. The hobbits filled in around them.

Turning around, Blue saw that Ronan had an arm around Adam, and that they were leaned close together, Adam saying something quietly right into Ronan’s ear as Ronan listened with a pensive frown, his thumb brushing lightly against Adam’s side. It was the casual sort of affection they had only just begun to let others see them engage in, but Blue hastily looked around, wondering how that sort of thing would be received. The whole group was seated so closely there was no way none of the dwarves or hobbits saw them, but no one seemed to react to the contact between the two boys.

Except for Merry, perhaps, who was sitting right next to them and grinning smugly. He elbowed Ronan in the side and said something out of the corner of his mouth that Blue didn’t catch, but Ronan just rolled his eyes and snorted, saying, “Man, shut up,” which Merry seemed to find hysterical.

The sound of guitar strings being plucked drew Blue’s attention back to the other side of the fire. The dwarves there had produced a few small instruments and were now tuning them. The dwarf holding the guitar looked over at the teens. “You know our tales, you say, do you know any of our songs?”

“Some,” Henry said, surprising everyone by actually speaking now. “Well, we know the words. I’m not sure we know the tunes. Though, also, I know a song that was written by someone where we come from about the recapture of Erebor.”

Absolute silence fell over the entire group then, broken by Ronan who had leaned forward to say, “Dude which song are you talking about?”

“ _I See Fire_ ,” Henry said, turning a little pink. “The, ah, you know, closing credits song from the second  _Hobbit_ movie. I might have learned the guitar tabs and the lyrics...don’t look at me like that Lynch it’s a good song!”

“I’m not saying it isn’t!” Ronan said. “I didn’t know you did music.”

“I am passible with vocals and guitar,” Henry said, shrugging. “Mostly it is just for fun.”

The dwarf with the guitar however had stood up and leaned over, holding the instrument out to Henry. “You must perform this song for us!”

“Oh,” Henry blanched, his eyes widening. “No. No I can’t I--”

“But you must!” Bilbo said, clapping his hands. “I would be delighted to hear music from your home.”

“And more delighted to hear a song about something you were involved in,” one of the dwarves said.

Bilbo laughed. “And why wouldn’t I? Is that so bad? Anyway, go on, Henry, we would love to hear it.”

“Seriously I haven’t performed since I was a little kid,” Henry said, though he was eyeing the guitar with honest consideration.

“This isn’t performing, lad, it’s sharing,” the dwarf said with an encouraging grin. “Go on! You’ve got some of those who were there at the battle themselves!”

Henry swallowed. He stared at the guitar for several tense seconds, then finally took it. “If they don’t like this then Ed Sheeran is getting an angry letter when we get home,” he muttered.

“I didn’t even know you sang,” Blue said, watching as Henry checked the tuning of the guitar.

“You’re learning a lot about me, Lady Blue,” Henry said, giving her an incredibly nervous smile.

Blue touched his arm. “You don’t  _have_  to do this, you know.”

“I think this will be one of those things where if I don’t, then sometime in my future I will be lying awake in bed kicking myself for passing up the chance to sing for the dwarves of Erebor,” Henry said.

“Right,” she said, grinning.

Henry smiled, taking a deep breath as he gave himself a minute to finish tuning the guitar and going over the song in his mind.

“Here goes nothing,” he said finally, not looking at any of the dozen or so dwarves, five hobbits or four of his friends who were waiting expectantly for him to start. He positioned his fingers on the neck of the guitar, but kept his right hand flat against the strings as he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then began to sing:

_Oh_ _misty eye of the mountain below,_

_Keep careful watch of my brother’s souls,_

_And should the sky be filled with fire and smoke_

_Keep watching over Durin’s sons..._

His fingers shook a little as he started to play, but as he got through the opening bars, eyes fixed on the instrument they steadied, and he started to smile a little as he continued with the first verse.

_If this is to end in fire_

_Then we should all burn together_

_Watch the flames burn high into the night,_

_Calling out father_ _,_ _oh, stand by and we will_

_Watch the flames burn auburn on the mountain side..._

As Henry continued, gaining confidence as he went, Blue looked around at the faces of the dwarves and hobbits. Most wore looks of wonder and fondness. As Henry reached the refrain, a few of the dwarves even looked close to tears. One had his eyes closed but was clearly listening, his head canted in Henry’s direction.

It was not a particularly long song with only one vocalist, and as soon as Henry finished the dwarves demanded he sing it again, and  _again,_ finally by the third time most of them had picked up the words to the refrain, their combined voices raising the volume so much that the song echoed through the hall and drew even more people over to listen, and when Henry let the final ‘ _I see fire burning auburn on the mountain side_ ’ come to an end there was a moment of silence, and then delighted applause, and though he was positively beaming, Henry had to put his hands over his face for a moment, his cheeks pink.

Still, he turned his head and caught Blue’s gaze, giving her an embarrassed but delighted grin.

“Not bad, Cheng!” Ronan said, leaning over to give Henry a slap on the back. “Not bad at all.”

“I’m just going to go hide in a hole somewhere now, but that was... fun,” Henry said with a laugh, looking grateful when someone took the guitar back and the dwarves began on another song.

Bilbo leaned over to pat Henry’s arm. “Be sure to write those lyrics down for me before you depart, I should very much like to have them. Hm, in fact I should very much like to know more of the music from your home! It seems different from ours.”

“Oh, man,” Ronan said, grinning a suspiciously wide grin. “I’ve got this great song for you, it goes ‘ _S_ _qu_ _ash one squash-_ -”

But before he could get out another note at least three voices shouted, “ _Don’t you fucking dare!”_ so loudly that Bilbo let out a startled sound and Ronan began to laugh so hard that he slipped off the base of the pillar to land on the floor next to Merry and Pippin.

“I’m going to break up with you, asshole,” Adam said, giving Ronan a light kick rather than helping him up, neither of which did anything to stop his boyfriend’s laughter.

***

More days passed. They began to fall into a routine which, for Adam at least, was a little worrisome. Not that he didn’t want to enjoy his time here, but complacency was dangerous. He didn’t want them to forget that they had to get home. Still, since Elrond seemed unable to give them any way to help with the research, it was good to have things to do. When they got bored with exploring there was an endless list of things they could learn or assist with. Rivendell, as it turned out, was incredibly self-sufficient, but this meant that elves worked constantly to grow and prepare food, tend to animals, sew and knit, build furniture, mend weapons, manage trade with nearby towns, and that was on top of all the planning for the scouts being sent out to gather intelligence on the movements of orcs and other dark forces. That was all to say there were plenty of distractions.

Adam woke one morning to a sharp bite of winter in the air. He lay for a moment with his eyes closed, listening to the sound of the wind rattling the last dry leaves on the trees outside, the quite sound of voices somewhere below their window, the distant whickering of horses, sweet birdsong and the steady rhythm of Ronan’s breathing beside him. 

Rolling over, Adam burrowed deeper under the blankets. They had added a soft fur duvet on top of the rest a few days previous, when the nighttime temperatures demanded it, and this was wonderful except it made it all the more difficult to get out of bed.

Still, Adam didn’t think he would be getting more sleep. He gave Ronan a kiss and slipped out of bed. A table by the wall held a pitcher of clean water and a bowl, and Adam rinsed his face and hair then changed into trousers and a knit sweater before slipping out of the room.

The stairs from their building led to a small courtyard overlooking a larger central plaza. Standing by the waist high stone wall of their courtyard, gazing out at the rest of the valley was Gandalf, bundled against the chilly morning with a steaming mug sitting atop the wall beside his right hand. 

He turned when he heard Adam approaching and smiled. “Ah, Adam, good morning. Would you like some coffee? The pot over there should still be warm.”

Adam looked where he pointed and saw a table set out with an earthenware pot wrapped in a knitted cozy, and a few cups. He went over and poured himself a cup then joined the wizard by the wall. “Where d’you get coffee from here?” Adam asked.

“Where do we get coffee from?” Gandalf asked, looking surprised by the question.

“Yeah,” Adam said. “I mean, it has to be grown in tropical regions, doesn’t it?”

Gandalf let out a quiet laugh. “It’s imported from the south. There’s tropical regions of Harad and other countries down that way, many goods make their way north through Gondor. Most tea is imported as well, mostly from the east if I recall.”

Adam nodded, taking a sip of the coffee. It was quite good, with a bit of a spicy aftertaste. “Everyone else is still asleep,” he said, after a moment, because he wasn’t sure what else to say but didn’t want to stand in silence.

“Mmm,” Gandalf hummed. “It is quite early. Most everyone who aren’t elves are still asleep.”

“Do elves...sleep?” Adam asked, realizing he didn’t know the answer.

“Oh yes,” Gandalf said. “Much less than you or I might need to. They have ways of resting while awake, and can push themselves without sleep for much longer than most, but they do need it eventually.”

Adam nodded, but his mind wandered again, so his next question was completely unrelated. “Do you think we’ll ever get home?”

Gandalf gave him a sympathetic look. “I wish I could answer that, you must forgive me, but I cannot. What I can tell you is that we will do everything in our power to help you in whatever way we can. If a way exists, we shall find it.”

“Thank you,” Adam said, looking up at him with a smile. “Everyone here has been really very kind.”

“No one here is in the habit of turning away those in need,” Gandalf said, his gentle smile returning. “Though perhaps you will indulge me in answering a question in regards to the nature of yourself and Ronan...”

Adam’s stomach twisted a little. He had really hoped that since no one had so far commented on the fact that he and Ronan shared a room and a bed, and were always together meant that no one  _was_  going to comment on that, but perhaps that would have been asking too much. “Oh, um, we’re...together like, seeing one another? I’m not sure--”

“Oh, you misunderstand,” Gandalf said, waving his hand. “I was not referring to the nature of your relationship,  _that_  is quite obvious.”

“It is?” Adam said.

“Is that a surprise to you?” Gandalf said, momentarily distracted from whatever he had originally been about to ask. “One only has to spend a few minutes observing the two of you to see that you care for one another very deeply, and there is a great deal of love between you.”

Now Adam could feel himself blushing. “Uh, thanks, I guess. It’s just...not always accepted. Where we come from. Two... guys being in a relationship.”

“Some people hold ridiculous notions,” Gandalf said. “But you should not worry about that sort of thing, there are many here who have already grown rather fond of you, all five of you.”

His blush fading a little, Adam smiled, and took another sip of coffee. “Sorry. What were you actually asking? About me and Ronan?”

“Ah yes,” Gandalf said, nodding. “I can sense that the two of you possess no small amount of... something. Magic, perhaps, but I cannot quite place it.”

“Oh, yeah,” Adam said. “Mine’s... kinda hard to explain. I can do a lot of things. Kind of like you I guess only not as much. Ronan has a specific ability, he can take things out of his dreams, and he can even manifest physical forms for dream beings...”

“Ah,” Gandalf said, nodding. “A Grey Warden.”

Adam blinked. “Sorry...what?  _Warden_?”

“Yes, the  _Sinda_ _Haladhrim_  in Elvish _,”_ Gandalf said. “They are Maiar of Lorien, who among other things is the lord of dreams. His  _Sinda_ _Haladhrim_  are the wards and guardians of the border between the living world and the dream world. Men call them Grey Wardens, which is the rough translation. It is said they are beings who can take objects and even living beings from the dream world into the waking—though I will guess that Ronan is not a Maia himself but descended from one.”

“That’s so...strange,” Adam said. “We call him the Greywaren. I wonder if that’s just a kind of muddled up version of Grey Warden.”

Gandalf nodded pensively. “It certainly could be. That adds to the thought I had that you may be from many ages in our future.”

“God,” Adam breathed, taking another drink of coffee mostly to give his brain a chance to stop spinning.

After another moment Gandalf asked, “And what of you? You do not have such a specific ability?”

“No,” Adam said. “Well, I’m pretty good at scrying. I had a teacher for that, but she--” He broke off, frowning, then shook his head. “Sometimes I can do other things too, but not as well.”

Gandalf nodded slowly. “Well, if you would care for assistance in that area, I would be very interested to see what you are capable of, and perhaps help hone your abilities.”

Adam looked up, startled at first but after he realized what Gandalf was saying, he found himself starting to smile. “I’d...that’d be amazing. Yes.”

“Wonderful,” Gandalf said, and tapped the rim of his mug against Adam’s before taking a sip, and letting out a content sigh. “Wonderful.”

***

Before any of them really had time to realized it, the end of the year was fast approaching and they had been in Middle Earth for a full month. It did not feel that long; Gansey voiced the opinion that even outside of trying to figure out how to get home, there was simply so much to do in Rivendell—either learning archery or basic sword play as Gansey and Ronan had, learning how to help with the seeming endless string of chores that every elf participated in, listening to stories at night, learning at least the basics of the Sindarin language that the Rivendell elves spoke, horseback riding, or in Adam’s case, what Ronan had started to refer to as ‘wizard school.’ Yet even with these distractions, the worry about what would happen to them was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

One grey winter afternoon they were summoned once again to Elrond’s study, where they had not been since that first time when they met Aragorn. When the five of them entered, they were surprised to find not only Elrond and Gandalf, but also the four hobbits, Aragorn, Legolas and a man and dwarf who, by logical inference, could only be Boromir and Gimli.

“Shit,” Ronan said, disbelievingly as the five teens stopped in the middle of the room. 

Elrond gave him an amused look, then gestured. “Legolas I believe you know by face,” he said, and Legolas inclined his head to them. “This man is Boromir, who you have not met before, and Gimli, who-”

“We met,” Gimli said, with a wink. “Didn’t get introduced by name, but we met.”

“You were there the night Henry sang in the hall of fire,” Blue said, recognizing Gimli more by the styling of his beard than by his face. “You said something about hearing Bilbo’s story twenty times.”

Gimli grinned. “My father’s version, at any rate. And twenty may be an understatement.”

Blue smiled as well but she, like the others, still had a concerned expression as they turned their attention back to Elrond, who was clearly waiting on everyone to settle down. 

“I wish to apologize, first, for how long it has taken,” Elrond said to the teens. “But there was a reason for the delay in my finding answers for you. Not long after I learned of your situation I sent a message east to our kin in Lothlorien, and only two days ago did I receive a reply from Lady Galadriel.”

“What did she say?” Gansey asked, unable to keep the eagerness from his voice, and the others were also looking on intently. 

“She said in no uncertain terms to send you five to her,” Elrond said. 

They all stared at him. Gansey gaped a little. 

“What?” Ronan said finally. “Send us to...”

“Yes,” Elrond said. “Unfortunately she did not elaborate, but I know her as well as anyone, and I would guess this means she believes herself capable of helping you.”

Slowly, Ronan turned to face the others, his eyes wide. They all could guess what Elrond was going to suggest, why the whole of the Fellowship was here with them. 

“I don’t know if I’m excited or absolutely terrified,” Henry whispered as they huddled a little closer. 

“We can’t...can we?!” Blue said, looking to Ronan since he was the unanimously appointed co-expert and final say in all things  _Lord of the Rings_  related in addition to Henry.

Ronan looked just as stunned as the rest of them. “I didn’t think...” He looked at Elrond then. “You’re going to send us with them, aren’t you?” he asked, gesturing at the others.

“That would be the safest course for you, I believe,” Elrond said. “It is not a safe journey between here and the golden wood, not in these times. Not for inexperienced fighters. But we will not force you, it is entirely your choice. But I cannot guarantee that if you remain we will be able to find a way to send you home, especially not with Gandalf leaving us.”

Ronan turned back to the other teens. He looked at Henry. “We can’t do this,” he whispered. “We can’t. But we have to, don’t we?”

“I think we do,” Henry said, nodding, though he still looked frightened by the prospect. “I mean, if Elrond and Gandalf can’t help, Galadriel would be my next bet.”

“That’s Cate Blanchett, right?” Adam asked, frowning. “Doesn’t...Doesn’t Gandalf--”

“Shhh,” Ronan said, waving his hand. “But, um, yeah. A lot of shit happens between now and then.”

The five of them stood silent for a long time, all too aware of the others watching them. Then, finally, Gansey nodded. “We’re doing this?” he murmured.

“We’re doing this,” Ronan said, and the others nodded as well.

Turning back to Elrond, Gansey gave him a decisive look. “All right. Yes. We’ll go.”

***

They sat up with the Fellowship long into the night. Elrond had apparently explained the teens to Boromir, Legolas and Gimli the same way they were understood by the hobbits; strangers from a far-off country that was reachable only by magic, who heard tales of the goings on in Middle Earth. No one save Aragorn and Gandalf in the group knew that one of those stories happened to be the very journey they were setting out on.

It was Aragorn and Gandalf who took the five teens aside in the hallway after Elrond finally dismissed everyone. They waited until the others had gone past, then Gandalf looked at them and said, “I know this will be difficult for you, but I must impress upon you that you must keep your foreknowledge a secret. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I think so,” Gansey said. “At least we can do our best, we’ll try.”

There came the sound of a door opening and shutting further down the hall, and they all turned to see a woman walking towards them. She had raven black hair in which shone a net of small gemstones, and her grey dress appeared to gleam even in the dim light of the corridor. 

“Estel,” she said, looking to Aragorn as she drew closer.

Aragorn’s stern expression softened. His shoulders relaxed. At a nod from Gandalf, he stepped away from the group and went to the woman, taking her hands and murmuring something to her in Sindarin. She nodded, glancing back at the teens and Gandalf, who bowed his head to her.

“That’s Arwen, isn’t it,” Blue whispered. 

“Mhmmm,” Gandalf said, nodding. “That she is.”

As they watched, Aragorn touched Arwen’s back and the two of them turned, walking down the hall towards the door to the nearest balcony, their shoulders touching and hands entwined.

“You know their story as well, then,” Gandalf said, watching the reactions to Arwen’s brief appearance.

“Yeah,” Henry said with a sigh. “It’s beautiful, and sad.”

Gansey was the first to shake himself back to focus. “Sorry, Gandalf, you were saying something about...”

“Yes,” Gandalf said, growing serious again. “I mean it, truly and deeply. Keep your knowledge to yourself for everyone’s sakes. Even if you know great harm or peril lies on the horizon.”

“Are you worried about us changing the story?” Adam asked.

“No,” Gandalf said. “I worry that in preventing one terrible event you may inadvertently trigger another. Something worse even. This journey already will be different than how you know, I do not want for you to feel responsible for anything that might transpire.”

Ronan stuck his hands in his pockets, tense, hunching his shoulders. “Even if we could save someone’s life?”

“You may save one person’s life only to have two more fall in their place,” Gandalf said, lowly. 

“So we know all this shit but we’re not supposed to act on any of it?” Ronan said, angry in the way he got when he was actually sad, or worried. “How the hell are we supposed to do that? We’re supposed to let them take this journey even if we know they’re going to get hurt or worse? How do we do that without breaking ourselves?!”

Gandalf looked truly sad then, and he let out a heavy breath, taking one hand off his staff to squeeze Ronan’s shoulder. “When you discover the answer to that question, Ronan, I beg you, be certain you share it with me.”


	4. Into the Dark

The morning of their departure from Rivendell began in a flurry of activity. Everyone was up well before dawn, and after a quick but filling breakfast spent some time checking to make sure everything was packed. Each of them had a bag of clothes and supplies, a sleeping roll, and some sort of weapon that had been gifted to them by Elrond or, in Adam’s case, by Gandalf. 

Blue could not shake the strange haze that hung over her as she fastened the straps of her pack, then reached for the soft, fur lined jacket she had draped over a chair. All the feelings running through her head felt so contradictory: she was sad to be leaving Rivendell, she was excited to be going on an adventure. She was in awe of being in Middle Earth. She was incredibly homesick. She felt like a badass with the two slender white-handled blades hanging from sheaths on either hip. She was completely terrified of actually having to use them.

All the teens were quite, in fact, as they went about gathering their things together. Even Ronan and Henry, markedly the most excited of the group, seemed to be grappling with their own internal worries.

Glancing up after she closed her pack, Blue found that Gansey had stepped over to her. 

“How do I look?” he asked. He too was in warm travelling clothes. At his side hung a short sword, and he had a matching small shield hanging from his pack.

Blue gave him a weak smile. “You look like someone who’s too nice to survive  _Game of Thrones._ ”

“Thanks, Jane, that’s exactly what I was going for,” he said flatly.

“You look ready for an adventure,” she amended, laughing for real this time. She reached over and felt the soft fur collar of his coat. “It’s a good look on you.”

Gansey smiled then, caught her hand, and in an exaggerated gesture leaned over to kiss the back of her fingers.

“Gross!” Ronan shouted from across the room.

Still giving her boyfriend a lopsided smile, Blue held her middle finger up in Ronan’s direction.

“Are you all right?” Gansey asked her quietly. “You looked a little bl—er, glum, a second ago.”

“When I figure out how to describe how I’m feeling I’ll tell you,” Blue said. She slung her pack on and bounced a few times to test its weight. “The good thing is we’ll all be in seriously good shape by the end of this.”

“Oh yes,” Gansey said with a grimace. “I think I’m going to regret spending most of the summer in libraries.”

***

They sky was just beginning to lighten when they brought their things down to the great hall where the found the rest of the fellowship, except for Gandalf, but with the addition of Bilbo, gathered around a low-burning fire. Sam, Merry and Pippin sat together on a bench near the hearth, all looking mostly asleep. Frodo stood nearby, beside the chair where Bilbo sat. Gimli was across from them, examining his axe. Legolas and Aragorn were nearby, speaking quietly, and Boromir sat off to the side, arms folded overt his chest, expression thoughtful.

“Where’s Gandalf?” Gansey asked as the teens joined the rest of the group.

“Speaking with Lord Elrond,” Frodo said. “He should—oh here they are now.”

Indeed no sooner had Frodo spoken then Gandalf and Elrond appeared. Then there were a few more words of wisdom to be given, and a few more goodbyes to be said. Bilbo kept finding reasons to keep telling Frodo things, but eventually they could delay their departure no longer and so, with Bill the pony plodding cheerfully behind them, the fourteen travelers finally set out.

They walked in silence as they climbed the switchback path that led up and out of the valley. For a while the only sound that could be heard besides their footsteps was the background roar of the waterfalls, though as the sky continued to grow lighter more and more birdsong could be heard. 

Though the day was progressing, the sun still had not yet risen above the horizon when they came up out of the valley and started off across the windy heath that sprawled between Rivendell and the Misty Mountains. It was plain then why they had been given such warm traveling gear, and Blue made a face as she pulled her jacket tighter about herself.

***

They walked until just before noon, by which time the hobbits and the teens at least were all ready to collapse. They made camp in the shelter of a thick growth of trees, and, after some persuading, Gandalf allowed Sam to light a small fire to cook a meal on. 

“We will rest until sundown,” Gandalf said. “And then travel through the night.” 

No one seemed particularly thrilled with that prospect, and so after their lunch-dinner, most of the group settled down to get what sleep they could. Adam found himself too restless to sleep, however, and so he joined Gandalf, who sat watch by the fire. Legolas was awake as well, but he had disappeared off somewhere. 

Settling down next to the wizard, Adam lay his own staff beside him. It was nearly as tall as him, light but strong, carved from pale wood with a white crystal set in the cage of spiraled branches carved into the top. Touching the staff was strange—the only way he could describe it was that it felt  _alive_  somehow.

Gandalf glanced at him, then, holding his pipe between his teeth, reached over to the stones that ringed the little fire pit. He picked up one half the size of a fist. “Hold out your hands.”

Curiously, Adam held out his hands, and Gandalf dropped the stone into them. It was still slightly warm from the fire.

“Now close your hands around it,” Gandalf said. “Heat comes from movement, do you understand? Close your eyes and feel into the element of stone to feel what makes it warm. And once it has cooled, see if you can heat it again.”

At first Adam had no idea what he was talking about, but he did as instructed. Closing his hands around the stone he shut his eyes and focused. It began with nothing, but then, slowly, he became aware of the stone, and then he began to sense it in a way that he could only compare to the way he felt Cabeswater back home, except instead of that heightened awareness of the trees he could feel into the atoms and molecules of the stone, could feel their movements as they echoed the heat from the fire. But these movements were growing sluggish even as he felt them.

He wasn’t sure how long it took him to coax them into a warm vibration again, but he did, and when he opened his eyes again the rock was pleasantly and steadily warm in his hands. He looked at Gandalf with a smile.

“Very good,” Gandalf said. “I was right, you are a quick learner. Now, to coax actual fire from something you will need the amplification of the staff and a spell to focus your energy, but there is a great deal we can do with our bare hands alone. That stone will stay warm indefinitely.”

Adam frowned, turning the stone over in his hand. “But...thermodynamics.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“There’s scientific laws,” Adam said, looking up at him, still frowning. “About the transference of energy. This stone can’t just keep being warm it’s got to be getting its energy from somewhere.”

Gandalf lifted his eyebrows. “It is. It’s getting its energy from you. If you die, the stone would go cold.”

“But where am  _I_  getting the energy from?” Adam asked. 

“From the world around you,” Gandalf said, making an expansive gesture. “You pull it in, you direct it to heat the stone. Ronan’s dream creations work the same way. He told me that if he were to die, any living creations he had made would seem to go to sleep. You and he both have the ability to channel energy how you like—yours is just more broadly applicable. Does that answer your question?”

Adam nodded slowly. “Sort of, yeah.”

“Good,” Gandalf said. “Now try that about five more times and you’ll certainly be ready to go to sleep for the next six hours.”

Adam blinked, then laughed quietly. “Yes, sir.”

***

Despite the wonder and majesty of Middle Earth, the first two weeks of their journey were, more often than not, miserable. Even when they were not traveling in the dead of night they rarely saw the sun, since the weather for those first fourteen days was overcast, windy, and sometimes even bearing splatters of sleet down on the group. Therefore when a morning dawned bright and clear after so long in darkness, everyone’s spirits were instantly lifted, helped by the fact that they could have a whole day and a half to rest.

They were also able to light a fire for the first time in quite a while, in a deep hollow shielded by holly bushes, which meant a better meal than those of the past few days. 

“Is there a river or something nearby?” Ronan asked, looking up as Legolas came over with everyone’s waterskins freshly filled.

The elf nodded. “Yes, just over that rise there is a small stream.”

“Good,” Ronan said. “I fucking  _reek_  I need a goddamn bath.”

Aragorn looked up from his bowl and raised an eyebrow. “You realize you will likely freeze to death.”

“It’s not like I’m gonna jump in the stream naked,” Ronan said, ignoring the deeply amused looks his friends were giving him. “I’ll heat up some water so I can just rinse off. Seriously man I know you can pull off the whole grimy traveler thing but I feel disgusting.”

“The lad has a point,” Gimli said, seriously. “I wouldn’t mind getting a wash in while we have the chance.” There were a few murmurs of agreement from the others, and Gimli nudged Aragorn’s leg with his boot. “And you might want to consider it yourself,, or you’ll find yourself with yet another nickname and this one not nearly as kind as ‘Strider.’”

***

Though the day remained bright and sunny, it was still a cold one, though their little grotto did provide some shelter from the wind. Still, everyone was quick in their washing up, since even taking what was essentially an under-the-clothes-washcloth-bath still caused more chills than were ideal. And after that, feeling clean and well fed for the first time in two weeks, everyone fell easily off to sleep.

When Gansey was nudged awake by Boromir to take his turn on watch it was mid-afternoon and the shadows of the trees and rocks and mountains were just starting to lengthen. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and trying to shake himself awake, Gansey was grateful to find that there was something like instant coffee, and though the taste was woody it gave him enough of a caffeine kick to wake him up the rest of the way. 

Gansey took his cup and a heavy cloak to the boulder that had been serving as a watch point since it gave a good vantage of the surrounding area. He clambered up on it and sat, holding the thick stoneware mug in both hands. 

The world was very quiet. It was easy to not realize just how noisy even places like Henrietta were until you were suddenly somewhere that had no noise, and Gansey had been thinking about that a lot since they left Rivendell. On one hand it was wonderful, and he could practically feel his ears relaxing without a background hum of engines and trains and people, but on the other it was, to a certain extent, more than a little eerie. 

The wind made a hushing noise in the grass and the holly leaves, and somewhere far ahead a bird of prey cried out. Shifting, Gansey hugged the cloak a little tighter about his shoulders. A few yards away from him a skinny rabbit poked its head out of the grass and watched him warily for a moment before it abruptly darted off.

Gansey turned and jumped so hard he nearly slid off his perch. “Legolas,” he said, half admonishment, half apology. “I didn’t hear you.”

“Of course you didn’t,” the elf said, amused. With the grace of a ballet dancer he climbed up beside Gansey and sat down, crossing his legs. “The day has been quiet?”

“In all senses of the word,” Gansey said. “That’s good though, I suppose.”

Legolas nodded, craning his neck a little to look around them before focusing on Gansey again.

Gansey was quiet for a moment, then said, “You’re young, aren’t you, for an elf?”

“I was born well after the fall of Beleriand,” Legolas said, his unblinking gaze intense. “My father and grandfather had already settled in the forest that is now Mirkwood.” Then, catching on that none of that meant anything to Gansey, he laughed and said, “I am one thousand six hundred and eighteen years old, to answer your question yes, I am considered young still.”

“Jesus,” Gansey said, his eyes widening. 

Legolas’ eyes sparkled with amusement.

“And you’re a prince, aren’t you?” Gansey said, deciding that he didn’t need to try and think about what being over a thousand years old was like. 

“Yes.” Legolas shifted, putting one foot flat against the stone and resting his arm on his knee. “Some of the others have been speculating about your background. You seem to be of noble birth.”

Gansey felt his cheeks color a little. He let out a nervous laugh and took a sip from his cup, which was already cooling. “Well. Sort of. We don’t have nobility in our country...well, that’s not quite true. It’s just different. My family is very wealthy, and my parents have very high social standing, yes, so I suppose it would be safe to say we’re a form of nobility. But our country doesn’t have a royal family.” He chewed his lip. “Do your friends treat you differently, because you are a prince?”

“Differently than what?” Legolas asked, but before Gansey could answer he suddenly sat up straight and held up a hand looking past Gansey to something in the distance.

Gansey turned, alarmed, but he saw nothing. “What is it?”

Leaning forward, Legolas pointed. “There. In the sky.”

Squinting, Gansey tried to see what he was pointing at. “I don’t—”

“There is a large flock of birds headed our way.”

“And that’s...?”

Legolas was already hopping off the rock and darting over to where Gandalf lay with his hat over his face. “Mithrandir!” Legolas hissed.

Gandalf sat up, and the two spoke quietly for a moment before returning to where Gansey still sat. He could see the birds now, like a great black cloud moving against the wind. Gandalf frowned, shielding his eyes with one hand.

“I do not care for the looks of  _that_ ,” he grumbled. “Crebain, perhaps, but whatever they are I doubt they mean us any good. Quickly, Gansey, Legolas, wake the others. We had better be out of sight by the time they get here.”

Confused and worried, Gansey did as he was told, quickly rousing the other teens. When he told them what was happening and saw both Ronan and Henry’s eyes widen, his heart only began to pound faster, and he scrambled to grab their things, shoving them out of sight under bushes as the hobbits moved to cover the fire. At the very last minute he tucked himself away under a thick bunch of holly, pulling Blue to his chest, Ronan against his back, and then the flock of large, black, raven like birds was upon them.

Before Niall Lynch had died, Gansey had slept over at the Barns one night and he and Ronan had stayed up late to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s movie  _The Birds._ That was, quite frankly, all Gansey could think of when these birds were upon them since there was something frighteningly malicious about the way they swarmed the air above where the group was hiding, as though the birds were looking for something, as though they knew they were there.

It seemed an impossibly long time that the birds were circling the outcropping, but then, just as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone again, soaring off northwards. 

Even as silence descended, no one moved for several minutes. 

Blue shifted uncomfortably and it was only then that Gansey realized how tightly he had been holding her. “Sorry,” he whispered, loosening his arms but not letting go entirely.

“S’okay,” Blue whispered back. She pushed herself up just enough to look over Gansey at Ronan. “Lynch, why are you making that face?”

“I’m not,” Ronan said, which probably wasn’t true. 

***

They packed their things and set off again through the lengthening shadows as the sun sank slow and blood-red behind the mountains. Everyone could tell that Gandalf and Aragorn were worried, which only made the rest of them ten times as worried. Still, though they saw the shadows of other birds every now and then, nothing more remarkable happened that night, which was a small mercy at least.

When, after their next stop, Gansey woke, it was to the sounds of Henry and Ronan talking in heated whispers nearby. Pushing himself up he scooted over to them. “Guys, what’s up?”

“We’re trying to decide if there’s anything we can do to make the next bit less...terrible,” Henry said, his brow furrowed. “But we don’t think there is.”

Gansey frowned too now, running his fingers through his hair. “What happens next? They try to go over the mountain, and then through the mines, right? And then Gandalf...”

“Shh, yeah,” Ronan said, waving a hand at him and casting a worried glance at the rest of the group.

“Well,” Gansey said. “Is there a third choice?”

Ronan and Henry looked at each other, then Henry said, “I mean, physically, yes, the group could continue south to the Gap of Rohan, but there’s several reasons why that’s a bad idea.”

“Like?”

“First of all we’re supposed to go to Lothlorien, which is on the other side of where we are now,” Henry said, pointing at the mountains. “Second...Lynch and I have, in our morning discussions, come to the unfortunate conclusion that Gandalf has to face the Balrog. If we somehow prevent that from happening we could quite literally screw over Middle Earth.”

Gansey frowned even deeper. “Saving Gandalf’s life could screw Middle Earth?”

“Okay, so Gandalf is a Maia, right?” Henry whispered. “They’re basically like angels and he was sent here with the specific job of—”

“Cheng,” Gansey said. “Give me the short version.”

“If Gandalf doesn’t fall,” Ronan said. “He doesn’t come back as Gandalf the White. And if he doesn’t come back as Gandalf the White, a metric fuck-ton of things will go way differently and could go way worse.”

“So he has to die, or whatever happens to him,” Gansey said, still frowning. “But it's fine because we know he comes back.”

Henry nodded, but his expression was unhappy. “Yes,  _we_  know that.”

“Look, dude,” Ronan said, and Gansey was startled by how not-mocking he sounded. “I don’t want them to be upset either but saving them from a little bit of depression isn’t worth ruining literally everything.”

“No, I know,” Henry sighed. “I just wish we could tell them.”

Ronan patted his back. “We’re not supposed to blow our cover.”

“All right,” Henry said. “But we could maybe at least convince Gandalf and Aragorn not to try Caradhras, right, I mean if they listen to us it would spare everyone that mess.”

“We can try.” Ronan looked across the campsite to where Gandalf and Aragorn stood, far removed from the others, speaking quietly. Without waiting for Gansey or Henry, Ronan pushed himself up and strode over, the other two scrambling after.

Gandalf turned as the trio approached. He smiled, but it was a weary expression. “Ronan. Gansey. Henry.”

“We wanted to talk to you about where we’re going next,” Ronan said. 

“We were just discussing that,” Aragorn said. “Unfortunately it does not seem that any of the options presented to us are preferable, though I think it is safe to rule out heading south, considering Saruman’s treason.”

Ronan nodded. “I was gonna say that Caradhras isn’t a good idea either.”

“No?” Gandalf said, looking at him with a slightly sharp expression.

“C’mon,” Ronan said, gesturing up at the towering shape of the mountain. “You can see how snowy it is from here. You think hobbits can get over that shit? There’s one member of this party that can travel easy over snow and unless Legolas wants to pull the rest of us on a sled I’ll bet you anything we’re going to get halfway up that mountain and then have to come down again, all it’s going to do is to be a waste of time.”

“That is fair reasoning,” Aragorn said, reluctantly. “But we cannot be sure a similar occurrence will not happen if we go some other way.”

“Except Saruman can’t fuck with us in Moria,” Ronan said. 

Both Gandalf and Aragorn gave him a long, hard look.

“Saruman is our biggest problem right now, isn’t he?” Ronan said. “Moria’s the only way we can go that’s out of his line of sight.”

Gandalf let out a heavy sigh and clutched his staff with both hands as he leaned on it, looking suddenly very old. “What Ronan says is just what I fear to be true.”

“I do not like it,” Aragorn said.

“Unfortunately now it is not a question of which choice we will like so much as which choice is best,” Gandalf said, grimly. “And as I said, Ronan has brought up a good point.”

Reluctantly, Aragorn nodded. “Very well,” he said.

***

The weather at the feet of the mountains was bitter, the sky overhead darkened with clouds, and it took them another full day to reach the walls of Moria and the place where Gandalf remembered the entrance to be. No one except for Gimli was in anything resembling a good mood when they finally were allowed a rest on the shores of a wide, stagnant looking pool while Gandalf searched the nearby wall for any sign of the hidden entrance.

“Can’t you help Gandalf find the door?” Blue asked as she sat down on a partially rotted log beside Ronan.

“I could tell him that it’s  _ithildin_ and we need to let the moon shine on the wall to see it,” Ronan said lowly, “but I want to catch my breath first and the minute they open we’re gonna be moving again. Can someone just go distract Boromir so he doesn’t throw a rock into the pool and wake up the kraken thing?”

Blue gave him a flat look. “Why can’t  _you_ go distract Boromir?”

Ronan responded by leaning back against the rock behind him, closing his eyes and folding his arms over his chest.

“Asshole,” Blue said, part affection, part annoyance. She kicked his boot then stood up and wandered past the hobbits and Henry and over to where Boromir was standing by the edge of the water. She felt a little unsure how she was going to strike up a conversation, but Boromir saved her the trouble.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is folly?” he said. 

“Everyone’s scared,” Blue said. “There isn’t a good choice either way.”

Boromir looked at her. “But there is at least a better one.”

Blue wasn’t really sure what to do with this either so instead she said, “You remind me of my mom’s boyfriend.”

“Sorry?” Boromir gave her a surprised and curious look. 

“He’s got the whole tough as nails on the outside but secretly soft on the inside thing going too.”

Now Boromir let out a quiet laugh, though she couldn’t tell if it was a friendly one or not. “You believe I am soft?”

“Not soft like weak,” Blue said. “Soft like nice. Like how you are with Merry and Pippin.”

“I see,” he said, a little less defensive now. “And your mother’s... boyfriend, does he also bear a great burden placed on him by virtue of his position?”

Blue blinked slowly. “Um, well... kinda. He used to be a hitman. Er. An assassin.”

“Your mother is involved with an assassin?” Boromir said, looking mildly alarmed.

“Former assassin,” Blue corrected. She looked over and saw that Gandalf had found the door, finally. “Oh, look at that.”

Boromir turned as well, and they were both silent for a moment, as were the others, taking in the beautiful shining silver pattern that stood out bright against the dark stone wall. Now Gandalf was reading something too lowly for Blue or Boromir to hear, though they did hear when Pippin exclaimed, “You don’t know the word?!”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Boromir turned back to the lake, muttering, “Folly,” under his breath again. He bent over, reaching for one of the loose stones at his feet.

Desperate now, Blue blurted out, “How's your..uhh...brother doing?”

“My brother?” Boromir had a stone in his hand as he straightened, but he didn’t throw it. Instead he gave Blue an even more baffled look. “Faramir? What of him?”

“He’s back in Gondor isn’t he?” Blue said. “And things are...not great back there, I’ve heard.”

Boromir eyed her for a moment. “They are not. Faramir is...trying. He is doing a great deal, but our father is not easy on him.”

“Your father’s the king?”

“Steward,” Boromir said. “Gondor does not have a king. Not anymore.” And with that his gaze flicked, for just the briefest second, across to Aragorn, still puzzling over the door with Gandalf. Then he looked down, eyes half closing as he turned the stone over in his hands, the corners of his mouth twitching into a frown.

Blue studied Boromir’s face for a moment. She felt bad for him, suddenly, realizing now more than before that he was, really, doing what the others were, trying to protect his home and the people he cared about. And then, before she could help it, Blue felt an unmistakable lump forming in her throat.  _Don’t you fucking dare start crying,_ she thought angrily to herself. 

“Are you all right, my lady?” Boromir asked, looking at her in alarm. He dropped the stone he had been fidgeting with and put a hand on Blue’s shoulder.

“I’m fine,” Blue said, but even to her it sounded ridiculously stiff.

Just then they were both distracted by the sounds of Henry and Ronan charging over to the door and Gandalf, and shouts of, “Lynch out of the—!” “I know what it is! I know the world!” “Cheng  _stop_ —!” And then, them both simultaneously bellowing “ _MELLON!”_ so loudly it echoed off the surrounding rock face.

“...are your friends mad?” Boromir asked, lifting his hand from her shoulder and looking with raised eyebrows at Henry and Ronan.

“No they’re just dorks,” Blue said, relieved at the abrupt distraction from her almost embarrassing bout of feelings. “But hey, look, the door’s open at least. That’s good.”

“Yes,” Boromir said slowly, looking with trepidation at the arching black maw of the doorway into the mines. “Very...good.” He shook his head, giving Blue a grim smile before he picked up his pack and headed to join the others.

Blue went to get her own things, which were with Gansey. “What’s up with Henry and Ronan?” she asked.

“Oh, you know,” Gansey said. “They both wanted to be the one to say the password, so they decided to race for it. Well, Ronan wanted to race, Henry thought they should just say it together. But it’s open now.” He pulled his pack on and looked at Blue. “You holding up ok?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Almost started crying on Boromir though.”

Gansey grimaced. 

“I  _know_ ,” Blue said. “It’s embarrassing and it would have been really bad. He just seems really... nice. I mean, he’s got some priorities he needs to sort out but have you seen him with the hobbits?! Plus he does look a little like Sean Bean.”

Gansey squinted. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m just saying,” Blue said, biting back a laugh at Gansey’s face. Hooking her thumbs through the straps of her pack she leaned over and kissed his cheek, then went to catch up with the others.

By the time Gansey joined them everyone stood in a semi-circle around the open doors. From inside came a deep smell of old, dry mold, of ground and a faint lingering acid of rot. The air also felt warm, which was the only enticing thing about it. 

“Adam,” Gandalf said, with an air of casual cheerfulness that seemed wildly out of place. “Now is as good a time as any to teach you a spell for summoning light.”

Warily Adam stepped up to his side, and the two began to speak in hushed whispers with much gesticulating on Gandalf’s part.

Blue glanced up at Legolas, standing on her other side from Gansey. The elf was eyeing the doors to the mine the same way Blue might eye a plate of mud that had just been served to her for dinner.

“I do not want to go in there,” Legolas said quietly. “It is like a tomb, to have so much rock surrounding me for miles. The thought makes my skin crawl.”

Gimli, standing in front of them, turned with a disgruntled huff. “This is no tomb, princeling, this is one of the greatest works of my people! You could at the very least attempt to show a little more respect.”

“I cannot help that I do not like enclosed spaces any more than you can help your desire to burrow into the dirt,” Legolas snipped. 

“Burrow into the dirt! Why you prissy—!”

“Hey, guys,” Gansey said. “Cut it out, seriously, I don’t think that’s going to make either of you feel better.”

Both elf and dwarf looked at him in surprise. Gansey also looked a bit surprised, and Blue tried hard not to giggle, but neither Legolas nor Gimli said anything further.

After a few moments both Gandalf and Adam had glowing orbs of light shining from the ends of their staffs. Gandalf was the first to step through the doors and into the darkness, though Gimli hurried quickly to go with him. The hobbits went next in a tight little bunch followed by Aragorn and Legolas, Blue and Henry, Boromir and Gansey and finally Adam and Ronan bringing up the rear.

The second Adam and Ronan stepped inside, however, the great stone doors began to grind shut. Ronan reached out to try and keep them open, but Gandalf had crossed back and put a hand on his shoulder. “It is quite all right, they are meant to do that, for safety measures, I imagine. But our path lies forward, not back.”

“But they will open again, should we change our minds, won’t they?” Boromir asked, nerves raising his voice a few pitches.

Gandalf just smiled, an odd, strained expression in the faint light from his staff. He patted Boromir’s arm, then returned to his place at the head of the group, motioning for the others to follow.

“Are we ever gonna have an adventure that doesn’t involve going into dangerous caves?” Adam muttered to Ronan. 

Ronan snorted. “Let’s just make sure Gansey doesn’t fall into a hole this time.”

“I heard that,” Gansey called from a few feet ahead of them.

“You’re welcome,” Ronan called back, but neither of them laughed. Neither of them even smiled.


End file.
